Soul Searcher
by heykyra13
Summary: Two best friends, anime fans, artists, turning into their own creations to save the worlds?... suddenly, guys and acne seem much smaller problems...
1. The Beginning

Chapter 1:  
  
The beginning  
  
"C ome on! Hurry up!" "Heather, would you calm down? I'm going as fast as I can!" "Well go faster!" I muttered something under my breath as I turned and leaned against the lockers, hugging my books to my chest. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my best friend, Lacey, give me that look she always does. Rolling her eyes, she pulled another book from her backpack and slid it into her locker. "Chill out, already! Adam won't flee the planet before we get there!" I glared at her, though I couldn't help but smile bashfully. She knew me well. Too well. "Yeah, well, he'll probably go off campus and I don't want him to leave without me at least saying hi!" Lacey grinned maliciously, swinging her head around to look at me. "Hi? You sure that's it?" I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "What do you mean?" "What about saying, 'I love you, Adam! Come sweep me off my feet and marry me!'" she exclaimed, waving her hands in the air emphatically. *SMACK!* "Hey!" she cried, rubbing her arm. "Why are you always hitting me?" "Cause you always deserve it!" I screamed. "Not all the time," she muttered quietly, fitting her last book in her backpack before shutting and locking her locker. Swinging her backpack over her shoulder, she looked at me and smiled, tilting her head to one side in that familiar way that meant she was pondering over something. "What are you smiling about?" I asked, walking beside her outside the double doors into the quad of Trabuco Hills High School. "Oh nothing. I was just thinking how ironic it was that we're technically the best of friends yet we do nothing but make fun of each other and torture one another." Despite my frustration at her earlier comment, I couldn't help but giggle. Count on Lacey to think of the deeper aspects of life. As we sped towards the theater, I glanced at her and thought about what she had said. She was right. We're almost completely different, yet it's strange how close we are. She walked with a smile on her face (I rarely saw her without one), her short, golden-auburn hair bouncing just below her shoulders. It really was an unusual color, almost coppery, though it held its own unique beauty, especially with her ever-changing hazel eyes and lightly freckled tanned skin (her mom is white and her dad is black). She wasn't at all fat; though she wasn't exactly an anorexic, too-skinny-for-her-own-good, runway model either. In my opinion she was just in the middle, well proportioned for her somewhat tall height. I was just about completely different. While her hair was short and a beautiful reddish, mine was long and a shiny dirty blonde (a little wavy, too, as a result of a recent perm). She has hazel eyes and mine were a clear blue. I'm just a hair shorter than she is, but again, well proportioned for my height. Though I dream for the day God will grant me skin as soft and clear as sand, I shall remain satisfied with the light skin I have (with easily flushable cheeks). Personality wise was another aspect of our personalities that were also absolutely un-alike. Lacey is the kind of friend you'd turn to when you feel bad and somehow will always make you smile. She's got that outgoing, hyper, crazy, funny personality that makes everyone around her in a good mood. Her mind is something I will never even attempt to interpret, and despite her insanity, she somehow manages to convince her teacher's she's smart enough to be in higher-level classes. How she does it, I will never know. Not that I'm dumb or anything. I'm really smart, too, and I get good grades. I have a crazy side, but I don't exactly tend to show it all that often in public. Trust me, if I were to show the full extent of my madness, I'd scare people. The side that others' generally see is my more sweet, caring, no-crap-tolerated side (intended 100% for Jason!). As different as the two of us are, we do share some things in common (believe it or not). We both love MUSHI! (Mushi- anything pertaining to love, romance, and lots and lots of KISSING!) and make sure we let the world know of our obsessions through our billions of fanfics. When we're not spending our time writing or drawing for our writing, we're either talking about guys, watching anime, or munching on See's milk chocolate toffee bars. Yeah, that's Lacey, and me, I thought, smiling to myself as we entered the theater. A world and a half apart, but still closer than ever. Noticing my quietness, Lacey paused and looked back at me curiously. "What's with you?" "Oh nothing." Lacey smirked. "Yeah right. Was it not you that said, and I quote, '"Nothing" always means a whole lot of "Something"'?" Oh yeah. Lacey has a real witty way with her words. I think she actually takes pride in this. "And your point would be?" Lacey merely laughed and shook her head. "Do I ever have one?" she replied, stepping up onto the stage. "Nope." I answered, following her. Turning behind the curtains on the right side of the stage, we opened a door leading into the practice and tech room. As Lacey went to lay her things on the practice stage, I cautiously peeked through the window on the door leading into the Tech room. "Sorry, Heather, but your lover-boy isn't here," said a voice, dripping with sarcasm and malice. A chill of annoyance slid down my back as I lifted my chin slightly higher and walked over to Lacey. "I wasn't looking for Adam, Jason. I was just-" "-looking for Adam." Lacey filled in, grinning. I glared at her, holding my fist close to her face. Lacey leaned back, holding her hands up in defense. "Hey, don't look at me! It was my imaginary friend! Honest!" I snorted, crossing my arms over my chest and closing my eyes. "I swear, both you and Jason are out to get me!" "Nah, it's just too much fun seeing you turn into a tomato." Jason cackled. I spun around, looking fiercely at Jason's large, ugly figure. And I'm not kidding when I say large! And let's just say what he lacks in petite-ness, he definitely makes up for in annoyance, sarcasm, and just plain rudeness! Sure, I suppose it's true when people consider him a comedic relief, but why does all his "comedy" have to involve me!? "Sorry, Heather, but I have to agree." I spun back around to face Lacey. She shrank back. "Again, my imaginary friend." "Yeah. Right." I muttered. Turning to Jason, I asked, "Where is he?" "Who, Adam? He went home a while ago. Right after the bell rang." "See? See? I told you!" I exclaimed accusingly, pointing my finger at Lacey. "I knew you should have moved faster!" "Hey, it's not my fault Adam decided to go home early!" Lacey replied defensively. "He always does!" "Yeah, Heather," Jason added slyly, "maybe that tells you something." I twirled around, not sure of whether to be angry or shocked. "What do you mean by that?" I asked suspiciously. "Think about it, Queen of the Blondes! He wants to get away from the insanity known as you!" "Shut up, Jason," I spat. "That's not funny." "Hey, I'm not joking. I'm being completely honest." "Huh, that's a first!" Lacey said skeptically. "Okay, then, psychos," Jason replied, "Tell me this. When was the last time he actually came up to you and said hi?" "He said hi to me today at snack!" I declared defensively. "No," he began, "saying hi as a result of you going up to him first doesn't count. When was the last time HE sought you out to say hi?" I glared at Jason, slowly growing more and more angry with him for some reason I wasn't sure of. This was Jason- it's practically human nature for people to get mad at him. But for once, I found myself turning cold on the inside. Deep on the inside. Jason could tell this. "See? I told you." He said, turning to go back into the Tech room. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, but was too stunned to turn. "Heather, you okay?" Lacey asked softly. "Aw, is the poor little baby scared?" Jason cooed sarcastically. "Shut up, Jason! Leave her alone!" Lacey demanded. Grinning viciously from ear to ear, Jason merely shrugged and walked into the Tech room, slamming the door behind him as he left. Of course, I was hardly in a state to notice. Man, I wasn't even in a state to care. Was what Jason said true? Could it possibly be? Then, like the friend she was, Lacey interrupted my thoughts by gently saying, "Come on, Heather, don't pay attention to Jason. Hey," she added in a more cheerful tone, "you never did before, so why start now?" She was right. In the past, I had always disregarded Jason's lame comments. So why did this one seem to stick to me so much? It was a question I pondered the rest of lunch. Despite Lacey's efforts to shake me out of my trance (whether it's like some sixth sense of hers or what, she somehow always can tell when people are down, no matter how much they try to hide it from her, and this especially applies to me!), I couldn't keep Jason's words out of my head. "He wants to get away from the insanity known as you!" Like some really messed up music box, these same words repeated themselves over and over again in my mind, even as I lay in my room on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Suddenly, a voice shook me violently from my thoughts. "Hello? Is anybody in there?" I rolled my eyes. Mothers. Someone wanna remind me why we need them again? "Come in." I muttered. The door opened, and my mother, Cheryl Berg, walked in, hands on her hips, looking like she was about to lecture me on the importance of room maintenance or some other "mother pet-peeve." "Uh, excuse me? Did you even know I was out there, banging on your door for, like, five minutes?" she began. "Sorry to have abused those precious moments of your ever-demanding schedule, Mom." I replied, more sharply than I had intended. My mom stared at me, changing arm positions from on the hip to crossed (which, in "parental body language", means 'watch out, you're treading on borderline danger zone!). "Well, first of all, what's with the attitude?" she demanded. I sighed, turning to my side, facing away from her. "I'm just not in a good mood right now, okay?" I couldn't see, but I knew she probably did some form of eye rolling just then. "Yeah? Well, I highly suggest you get yourself in a good mood next time you decide to talk to me like that, got it?" Not answering, I closed my eyes, pretending to try and sleep. "That silence had better be your declaration of submission," she warned, probably narrowing her eyes at me suspiciously. "And speaking of silence, why didn't you say anything about this!?" Too tired to sit up, I merely turned my head to glance at the paper dangling between her fingers. All I needed was to see the white and brown coloring of the school district document to inwardly cringe, knowing exactly what was coming next. "Don't you ignore me, Heather Renee Berg! Were you planning on 'just- so-happening' to forget to tell me about these? I mean, come on! How stupid do you think I am?" I bit my lip, refusing to answer (though with the mood I was in, I desperately wanted to). "I mean look at this!" she continued, looking at the progress report herself. "One B, three C's, two D's and an F!?! Did you actually think you could get away with me not finding out?" Suddenly, I felt all my anger and frustration completely burst as I stood up and twirled around to face my mom. "Hey, it's not like I tried to hide my grades from you! You got them in the mail, just like everyone else, so don't blame it on me!" "Hey, watch it, young lady! You can't just sit there and talk to me like that!" "Oh yeah? So, just because I came out of you, you think I'm just going to sit back and watch while you totally blame me for something that isn't even my fault!" Just then, my mom got this really nasty look in her eyes as she threw my progress report on the ground. "Heather, are you blind? Right now, I couldn't even care less about that! What's with your grades? That's what I'm ticked about!" "So what?" I screamed back, becoming more and more furious as I went on. "It's only a progress report! Six weeks, Mom. Not that big of a deal. I'll bring them up!" "Heather, that's not the point!" she exclaimed, already starting to sound worn out. "Your grades never should have been there in the first place. What were you thinking?" I rolled my eyes, throwing my hands up in the air emphatically. "Oh, yeah, now I wasn't thinking. What a horrible person I am!" "That's not what I said!" "I don't care what you said! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" I screamed in full fury. I could tell I really surprised Mom (and actually, I kinda surprised myself, too!) cause for the next few moments, she just stood there with a look of complete shock on her face. And during all this, I'm thinking What the heck am I doing? Finally, after what felt like forever, Mom just turned and walked towards the door. "Fine," she spat, "You want to be alone? You can stay alone as much as you want. while you're grounded!" And with that, she slammed the door closed, shaking some of the perfume bottles on my table. "Fine!" I shouted back, collapsing back on my bed and burying my face in my gigantic stuffed German Shepard. It was as if my life had done a total 180! Just a couple of hours ago, I was joking around with Lacey about my boyfriend, smiling and laughing like nothing was wrong. Then, Jason starts giving me the idea that my 'so-called' boyfriend really is so-called, and now this whole grade-thing with my mom erupted. I mean, was my life a soap opera, or what? At the least, a sitcom where people can watch my problems from behind the safety of a TV screen and just laugh. Well, I thought, at least Lacey wouldn't laugh. For a few moments, this eased me. Then, I cringed again. The instant I tell her about this one, she'll go all 'motherly' on me and side with my mom, like she normally does, trying to make me feel bad about what I did so everything will be smiles and sunshine, again. I sighed. Actually, that wasn't completely true. Sure, Lacey does side with Mom sometimes (not all the time), but she is generally right about things like that. And it's not like she tries purposely to make me feel bad. Somehow or other, I just do. But still, being reminded of all this, Lacey wasn't exactly the first person to talk to right now. In fact, knowing me, if I tried to talk to anybody, I'll most likely just end up blowing up in their faces, too, and getting them all ticked at me. Rolling to my side, I looked at the many pictures and posters plastered on my walls. Most of them were magazine and calendar cut outs of wolves (just to let you know, I LOVE wolves), but some tigers and horses were up there, too, along with drawings of my own. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't talk to anybody about my problems; it'll just make it even worse. It wasn't exactly like I could just forget about it all, and for some reason, my pride wouldn't allow me to go back and apologize to Mom. Again, I sighed. If only I could wish my problems away. Suddenly, my eyes fell on one of the pictures on the wall; one of the ones I drew, and was very proud of (if I do say so myself!). It was a picture of a teenage girl with long, bright red hair that brushed just past her waist (except for a few strands that framed her face) and large, emerald-green eyes. On the paper, she looked kinda tall, even though in reality, she'd be just a hair short. She wore a light blue sleeveless sweater with a white shirt underneath. The white shirt had short, puffy sleeves with the same light, blue-colored hem, and the bottom of the shirt kind of hung out beneath the sweater. A short, school-type blue skirt and long, blue socks adorned the outfit along with small, shiny black shoes. Now, if this were all one would see, you'd think she'd be an ordinary cartoon girl, right? But (thanks to my creative genius) that's certainly not all! Atop her head sat a pair of cute little cat-ears, the same red color as her hair. A red tail also curled around her from underneath her skirt. So, instead of being a regular teenage girl, I made her into an ultra-cute, cat person! Beneath the picture, the word 'Prance' was written in bold, pink letters. See, Prance was a character I had made up a long time ago. Like, years ago or something like that; not even I can remember how long. I totally came up with a whole story behind her, too, like her personality, where she's from, her bratty older sister, you name it! She's kind of become my alter-ego.. or more the kind of hero I've always dreamed of being. And, in spite of all the drama revolving around me right now, I smiled and closed my eyes.  
  
To be able to run away to my own little world and have my own little adventures, not having to worry about all these stressful problems.  
  
Then, I thought of something that actually made me giggle. Yeah, and as long as Lacey doesn't try to reprimand all the time, she can come, too. We can both have fun in our own worlds together. Sighing deeply, I suddenly found myself growing extremely tired. And, since I was on my very comfortable bed, and my eyes were already closed, it was only natural for me to drift off to sleep. At least, I think so.. 


	2. The Nightmare

Chapter 2: The nightmare  
  
"H eather?" I moaned, ignoring the voice as I continued to sleep. "Uh, Heather?" I rolled over, wishing the voice would whisper instead of yell. "Heather, come on, wake up!" This time, shaking accompanied the yelling, emitting a from me a groan and a feeble, "Mom, what it is?" Surprisingly, the voice paused before speaking again, and with me somewhat more awake, I suddenly realized that it didn't sound at all like Mom. "Okay, first of all, I am not your mom, and second of all, you really should-" "Lacey?" I interrupted, rubbing at my eyes. "Well, I think so." "What are you talking about?" I asked irritatingly. "And what are you doing in my room?" "Uh, Heather?" "What!?" "Maybe you should open your eyes and seriously reconsider your question." Confused, I yawned as my eyes fluttered open. The first thing I see, to my ultimate surprise, was not my popcorn plastered ceiling but instead a bright, clear blue sky. Big, fluffy white clouds hang low in the air, almost looking like they had been painted that way. Literally!? Suddenly, my eyes snap open and I sit up immediately. The first thing I notice is not the soft, cotton sheets I remembered falling asleep on but the dewy, velvety carpet of grass beneath me. Looking around, I was stunned to see . scenery! Trees, more grass, a couple buildings. And it was all .. well, for lack of a better word, cartoony! It was all drawn, colored in, like on a TV show or something. The only thing I could think of was, Is this a funky dream or what? "Lacey, what the heck is going on? Everything's .. animated!" Again, I heard the uncomfortable pause. "Well, yeah, but that's not the only thing," she said cautiously. Without warning, a shiver creeped up my spine as I unexpectedly realized I knew exactly what she meant by that. But, despite my suspicions, I gulped and warily asked, "What do you mean by that?" "Take a look." Slowly turning to face her, I gasped, completely surprised (even though I had already predicted it). Lacey wasn't there. At least, not the Lacey I knew. The one that sat beside me was an animated teenager with a totally freaked expression in her stormy, blue-green eyes. Bright reddish-orange colored hair was tied back into a ponytail, the ends hanging extremely long, just a little above her knees (save several strands clumped together on either side of her face). Her thin-drawn figure was definitely shown off by her short, crème-colored shirt with long, loose sleeves flaunted by her long, dark red vest dusting a bit past her waist. A pair of light blue jean shorts and a brown, leather belt ended the look, leaving her long, thin legs to continue until her short, white socks and red and white sneakers. Um, I didn't exactly happen to mention that Lacey had her own character, did I? Yeah, well, the person I was staring at now was her. Kyra. And of course, I could only guess what I looked like. "Okay, so now that we've gotten that over with, can you guess what I'm gonna say next?" she said. I winced, biting my lip. "Unfortunately." I watched Lacey's nervous expression as I slowly lifted my hand to the top of my head. The first thing I felt was soft, smooth hair (whether it was really my own blonde hair, I still wasn't sure). Moving my hand around, my fingers came into contact with something that wasn't hair. Instead, it felt silky and fuzzy ... just like the things I was afraid I was going to find- a pair of cat-like ears. "No way! I'm Prance!?!" I scream, leaping to my feet. Right behind me, Lacey (or Kyra.. Ugh, too weird for me!) stood up as well, already showing signs of having a nervous breakdown. Yeah, and like I'm not? I chastise myself. "Alright, now, I know this is weird, but let's just calm down." Lacey began, looking rather stressed out for someone who's telling me to calm down. "Calm down? CALM DOWN?! Are you nuts!? We're cartoons, for Pete's sake!" I screamed. "How the heck do you expect me to calm down!?" "Good point," she replied meekly. Allowing my head to collapse into my hands, I took a deep breath, trying (or better yet, desperately attempting) to chill out. "Okay, okay, you're right. We just have to calm down. I mean, this is a joke, right? No! A dream! This is all just a funky dream I must be having cause of all that stress today." I convinced myself. Lacey was about to comment when suddenly annoyed look crossed her face. "Stress? You mean the whole thing with Jason and Adam? You're still stuck on that? How many times do I have to tell you, forget about it!" Oh, boy, here she goes again.. Now would be a nice time to wake up. I thought. Aloud, I rolled my eyes and said, "Hello? I think we have something a little more important than my personal life!" Lacey (Kyra) just snorted, a cross expression on her face as she crossed her arms. "Yeah, whatever. I'll come back to that later! But anyway," she added in a lighter tone, "even if this is a dream, we must be having the same dream cause I know I'm no figment of anyone's imagination. And I'm not the one with elaborate dream scenes." To this I raised an eyebrow, feeling the anger rise within me. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" To my surprise, Lacey.er, rather Kyra, actually took a step back and a large sweatdrop rolled down her forehead (Anime terminology- "sweatdrop": large white drop of sweat that appears on one's head when intimidated, embarrassed, or annoyed). "Oh, uh, nothing!" she stammered. Sighing, I leaned back and fell back to the ground, propping my elbow on my knee and leaning my chin against my hand. "I guess the only thing to do now is wait until I wake up." With an unconvinced expression planted on her face, Lacey plopped down on the ground next to me. Leaning back on her hands, she tilted her head back and stared at the sky. "So," she began randomly, "exactly how long do you think it'll take until you wake up?" "I dunno." I replied, shrugging. "Normally, they don't last nearly this long, so I really couldn't tell." Expecting her to reply, I felt suddenly wary when she fell silent (for once!). Glancing at her, I noticed a strange appearance on her face as her head all of a sudden popped up and began looking around, as if trying to look for something. "Uh, Lacey?" I asked, somewhat nervous. "What are you looking for?" At first, she didn't answer, which did nothing to ease my already calmed nerves. Finally, still looking around, she said carefully, "Hey Heather?" "Yeah?" "Call me crazy, but .. Does this place look kinda familiar?" I blinked, contemplating her words. "You're kidding, right? This is a cartoon! How can it look familiar?" "No, I'm serious! Go ahead, just look around yourself." Still unsure about all this, I looked around just to please Lacey. The two of us sat on a wide, grassy field, kind of set in what looked like the center of town. Trees bordered the field, as well as what looked like painted, white lines. Tall, green hedges framed the perimeter of the land. A large building sat the far edge, probably about three or four stories tall, with at least a dozen windows sitting on each story. Wide, stone steps led up to a pair of red, double doors. Playground equipment sat in front of the doors, including swings, slides, and a dome jungle gym. "It kind of looks like a school." I mentioned, still not understanding what Lacey was getting at. "Does it look like any particular school?" she pressed. "No, not ..." Suddenly, I saw it. The field sectioned off by the painted white lines- in other words, the soccer field. A soccer field I had seen before. A soccer field I had seen on TV. "You're kidding!" I gasped. "You're making that a popular phrase, aren't you?" Lacey replied dryly. I could totally picture myself now- jaw dropped (literally!) and eyes bulging. "We're in ... Digimon!?!" "Season two, to be precise." Lacey added as a-matter-of-factly. I could totally feel a the sweatdrop of my own roll down my head as I gave Lacey a look saying, 'You're totally enjoying this, aren't you?' "Sooooo," Lacey said, "do you dream about Digimon on a regular basis?" "Why the heck are you taking this so calmly!?" I exclaimed, stepping forward and shaking her back and forth by her shoulders. "This is .this is crazy!!" Suddenly, I found myself freezing in fear as a stunned look crossed her face. "W-what is it?" She didn't answer. Slowly, I stared as her hand moved, trembling violently. Reaching inside her vest, she pulled out a small object that she had apparently discovered was there while I was shaking her. My eyes widened, looking frantically back and forth between Lacey and the object. "Lacey, is . is that what I . think it-" "Yup," she replied weakly, nodding. With wide eyes, we both looked down at the object. It appeared to be something like a pager, but for two people who have watched Digimon as long as we have, we knew very well that it wasn't. A small, square screen was bordered by pink, plastic-like material, and three circular buttons sat underneath. Immediately, I looked up at her with a half shocked, half suspicious appearance. "Lacey, what are you doing with a digivice?" "Hey, don't look at me! I have absolutely no idea!" she insisted, clenching the gadget in her hand. Feeling my head begin to spin, I placed my hand on my forehead and sighed. "Man, what the heck is going on? First, I wake up as Prance with Kyra sitting right next to me. Then, I figure out we're sitting in the middle of one of my favorite TV cartoons! And now," I added climactically, turning to Lacey, "you end up with a digivice! What in the world is up with that!?" "Trust me, if I knew, I'd tell you." Lacey replied, staring down at the object. Not knowing what to make of all this, I merely dropped my arms to my sides and looked around, feeling slightly refreshed as the wind whipped by me. But then, I noticed the long, red hair billowing out in front of my face, my hair, and I just became miserable all over again. "I seriously hope this all is a dream." I spoke up, tucking "my" hair behind my ear (which I had to do a couple of times because of the fact that I forgot my ears were at the top of my head, and not at the side). "Uh, yeah, what you said." Lacey replied, not exactly with the conviction I had expected. Quirking an eyebrow at her, I was surprised to find her staring up at the school building. "Lacey?" I questioned, wondering what was going on through her mind (something I try not to think about considering the "freakiness" of what I might find). Looking down at the digivice in her hand, I noticed she clenched it tightly. A sudden thought crossed my mind, as I instantly looked up at her again, afraid I knew exactly what she was thinking. (See? I told you it was freaky!) "Lacey, no!" I spurted. Lacey looked at me, eyes wide and sparkling (and huge!). "What?" she asked innocently. I just stared at her, wondering if she really thought she could fool me. "I know exactly what you want to do and there's no way we're-" "Aw, come on, Heather!" Lacey pleaded, falling to her knees and clasping her hands together. "Don't you remember? We always said how cool it'd be to actually go to the Digital World!" "Yeah, back in the day when I didn't question my sanity!" I spat. "Pleeeeeaase????" she begged. "I'll be your best friend!" I rolled my eyes drolly. I wasn't even going to bother commenting on that one! She pretty much figured this out. "Um, okay, maybe not. But I still really, really, really, really, really wanna go!!!" "Lacey!" I moaned, feeling another sweatdrop threatening to appear. "Please, Heather?" she whined. I heaved a great sigh, thinking I was insane enough as it was. Not like it could get much worse, could it? "If I say yes, will you promise never to give me that look again? It's bad enough to see it normally, but when you're anime, you bring new meaning to 'puppy-dog' eyes." Squealing in delight, Lacey jumped up and hugged me. (at least she thinks it was a hug- me, I felt like we were in a sumo wrestling match!) "Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank-" "Yeah, yeah, whatever," I managed, lungs practically crushed, "just let go, alright?" Obliging instantly (but emitting a couple more 'thank you's'), she quickly turned to the school building and began jogging towards the double doors. Seriously hoping (not for the last time) that this was all a dream, I walked slowly after her. Like a kid sneaking into a movie theater, Lacey stuck her head inside the building and looked around, checking to see if the coast was clear. After a few moments, she raised her hand and beckoned me to come, slipping in herself. Closing the door softly, I turned around and looked up and down the hallways, becoming more and more skeptical about this plan as we went on. "So what do we do now, oh smart one?" I asked, glancing at Lacey. With a strange, quirky, little smile on her face, she pointed down one of the hallways. "That way!" she announced, taking off at once. Stunned into silence, I was only able to stand there and watch while Lacey walked cheerfully down the corridor, like she really belonged here or something. Regaining my senses, I shook my head and jogged after her, eyes never ceasing to stare at her in amazement. "And how, may I ask, do you know this is the right way?" I imagined she was too excited to really give my question thought, because she merely shrugged and replied complacently, "I dunno. I just do!" Completely bewildered, I just closed my gaping jaw and walked forward, turning left and right like Lacey's shadow. After a few more turns and two more flights of stairs, Lacey finally curved sharply left into a brightly lit room with rows of computers sitting on tables. Refusing to look flabbergasted once again, I simply turned to face her with a suspicious look in my eyes. "How did you know how to get here?" "Like I said, I just do," she said simply as she sat at one of the chairs and began typing away madly. "Don't ask me why I know how to get here, or why I know how to open this portal, but for some reason, I just do." I narrowed my eyes. "You sound like an Apple Jacks commercial." "Yeah? Well you sound like Pat Sayjack with all these questions. Just chill out, already! Everything's under control." I rolled my eyes. "Ever notice how when cartoons say that, something bad always happens?" Lacey just laughed and looked at me, a fierce sparkle twinkling in her eyes. "Yeah, but technically, we aren't the same as those cartoons, now, are we?" Refusing to answer, I just crossed my arms and stared at the computer screen, not really paying attention to the images at all. "See?" Lacey answered, turning back to her typing. "We're smarter than that. We won't get into trouble." That's gotta be the biggest contradiction of the century! I thought, rolling my eyes. Luckily, I didn't even have time to comment, cause finally, Lacey clicked the mouse and stood up. "There! All ready!" she exclaimed proudly. "'Bout time," I muttered. "Let's just get this over with." "Aw, come on. You can't honestly tell me you're not the least bit excited about this." Actually, she was right. Inside, I was really thrilled about it. But I wasn't ready to let her know. "Are we going or not?" I demanded, tapping my foot. "Alright, alright. But you might want to hang on." She added mysteriously, holding her digivice out to the screen. I looked at her strangely, wondering. "What do you-" "Digiport open!" she exclaimed as the lights around the computer screen began to blink rapidly. Amazingly, the background music that had become so familiar to us during the TV show began to grow from somewhere behind us, louder and louder. Next thing I knew, we were both sucked into the computer. 


	3. A Whole New World

Chapter 3: A whole new world  
  
"D id it work?" "Judging by the throbbing in my head, I'd say we made it!" Rubbing the small lump on my forehead, I cautiously opened my eyes. Yeah, we made it alright. The familiar lush greenery and colorful flowers filled my view. The background music had long disappeared, and I now lied on my back on a carpet of velvety grass (though at the moment, it certainly didn't feel all too comfortable!). The same clear-blue sky was now partially hidden by the wide leaves of the trees. Sitting up, I looked around for Lacey under the impression that she was right beside me. Not seeing her, I assumed my headache magnified her voice to where it seemed like she was close. "Lacey? Where are you?" "Up here!" Looking up, I gasped. "What the heck are you doing up there? You wanna get yourself killed?" From atop the highest branch of a very tall tree, Lacey just looked down at me and smiled. "Hey, don't worry, I'll be fine. But you should come up here! The view is amazing!" "You've got to be kidding! There's no way I'm going up there!" Not to mention my head's still spinning from just sitting down here! "Aw, come on Heather! You really should see this!" Lacey insisted. You know, I realized that I've been sighing a lot since all this crazy stuff started, and this was no exception. Knowing she'd never stop whining until she got what she wanted, I walked towards the tree and reached up towards the first branch. "Just to let you know," I called, "I haven't climbed a tree since I was, like, six, so don't expect me up there anytime soon!" "Trust me! You'll find it a lot easier than you think when you try." Easy for you to say! I thought. But, despite my thoughts, I pulled myself up. I blinked, and looked down at the branch separating me from seven feet of air. Whoa, Lacey was actually right! I thought, amazed. This is pretty easy! Looking up again, I reached up for the next branch, and this time pulled a little harder. Next thing I knew, I was flying upward above my target and landed neatly on the branch above it. "Whoa! Since when could I do that!?" "Well, hello!" Lacey replied, smiling at me from just three branches above me. "You are Prance, now, right?" "Yeah, so?" "Well, think about it. Prance is agile and strong, so naturally, you would be, too, wouldn't you?" I tilted my head to one side as I thought about this. I guess it made sense. Lacey grinned, sitting on the branch comfortably. "Come on, give it a try," she said slyly. "Let's see what you can really do." If I weren't insane, actually believing I was Prance, I would have said, "No way!" in a heartbeat. But right then, the challenging look in Lacey's eyes just couldn't escape me, and before I knew it, with a sneaky smile on my face, I was crouching low, feeling my tail (yes, my tail!) tense behind me, and letting it all go. Who would have guessed I .. I mean Prance, had so much strength in just a little jump? With the little strength I spared, I totally passed the term "flying". I was soaring! Lacey was way below me, now, and the only thing that embraced me was clean, fresh air. And, as thrilling as this all was, I kinda paused to think about that. Here I was, probably about fifty feet above the tree, and a lot longer to the ground. If there was nothing holding me up, then that means .. "Oh crap! I'm going down!" I yelled, already feeling gravity taking effect. The wind rushed by me faster and faster as the distance between me and Lacey rapidly shrank. Seeing my panicked expression, Lacey cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Heather, don't forget, you're a cat, remember? Just land on your feet!" Kinda easier said than done! I thought frantically as I tried to straighten myself out (yeah, in mid-air, remember, so not exactly a piece of cake!). Somehow, I managed to get my feet beneath me and with a grace I never imagined I possessed, I lightly landed on the branch next to Lacey, hardly shaking the tree or anything. Lacey clapped, a wide smile on her face. "See? I told ya you could do it! How did it feel?" "I'll tell you when my head stops spinning," I replied, all but collapsing onto the branch. "Hmph, and you call yourself a cat?" Instantly, I snapped back up, throwing a nasty look at Lacey. "What'd you say!?" "I didn't say it!" I narrowed my eyes, studying her skeptically. "Honest!" she added. Then, out of nowhere, "I mean, really. Even those fat, stupid house cats have better balance than you, and they don't freak out over a little jump like that!" This time, my annoyance passed for curiosity as I looked around, realizing the voice obviously wasn't Lacey's. "Who's there?" I demanded. A rustle in the leaves below us made both of our heads look sharply down, but nothing was there. Apprehensively, I glanced at Lacey. "Please tell me you know what that was." Lacey merely looked at me with a "sorry" look and shrugged. "It kinda sounds familiar, but I can't place it." "Kinda familiar? Is that a good or bad thing?" "Your guess is as good as mine!" Once again, the voice appeared, this time giggling. "Very funny, Kyra. You don't even recognize me?" For a brief moment, I thought I saw Lacey's eyes widen in fear, but when I checked to make sure, they were normal. Instead of commenting on it, I said, "See? The voice even knows you!" "Of course I know her!" the voice replied. "She's my partner!" "Lacey, what is she talking about?" I asked, totally confused. Before I could answer, the figure to the voice stepped out from the safety of the leaves. Now, let me tell you, if ever there were a prize for the most original "anime" style facial expression, I would have won it long ago, but this once I bet would have been the one to top them all. I could just imagine my eyes the size of basketballs and my jaw dropping all the way to the ground below. The person, . er, creature, that stood before us was actually a cat, white in color with large, wide ears and tufts of purple (yeah, purple) hair on the end of each one. Her eyes were big, sharp and blue, and she wore a pair of bright yellow gloves with her claws poking out of the fingers. Her tail must have been twice the length of her body, ending in another clump of purple hairs. A single, gold ring hung neatly, close to the end of it. For those of you who are not familiar with Digimon, the creature that stood before me was known as a Gatomon. To make it short, she's dynamite in a small package- 110% fire, fury, and twice as much attitude. But what did she mean by partner? "Gatomon?" Lacey sputtered, probably looking as bewildered as I did. "W- what are you doing-" "What am I doing here?" she retorted, placing her paws on her hips. "Why don't you try telling me what you're doing here? The guys have been looking for you all morning! Everybody was supposed to go swimming down at Seadramon's Lake, remember?" Okay, all these words totally went right over my head. Completely stunned, I just looked at Lacey, who seemed equally amazed. "Um.. Uh, . I'm sorry?" Gatomon just shook her head. "Yeah, you should be. We practically searched the entire Digital World for you!" Before Lacey could respond, Gatomon pulled something out of her right glove- a small, tennis ball-sized sphere of a clear and very pretty stone. In the center, it looked like there was a tiny, golden crescent moon encrusted in it. Again, I could have sworn I saw Lacey's eyes widen. Holding up the crystal ball while still staring at Lacey, Gatomon squeezed it. Almost immediately, the tiny crescent in the center glowed brightly, making the entire little trinket look like a ball of light. Bringing the object closer to her mouth, Gatomon said loudly, "Matt, I found her." A deep, velvety (and very, very handsome!) voice replied, "It's about time!" "Yeah, I know. Just hang on and I'll meet you in a minute." "Got it," the voice answered just as the light from the crescent faded. Tucking the ball back into her glove, Gatomon said, "Just stay here. I'll go get the others. Knowing Davis, he'd probably end up getting himself lost trying to find this place. And you," she added, glancing my way, "had better stay here, too. You're obviously not a digimon, so you'd be safer with Kyra." Not allowing any time for either of us to say anything, Gatomon suddenly leapt into the sky and out of sight. Silence completely took over the scene as Lacey stood staring out after Gatomon and I stood staring at her. "What in the world was that all about?" I finally asked, looking at Lacey strangely. "If we're in the Digimon show, then how did Gatomon know you? I mean, not the 'you' you, obviously, but the Kyra you? What did she mean by you being her partner? Kari's her partner! And what was that thing she had? Why did-" "Heather?" I blinked. "Yeah?" "Did I ever tell you I ... um, ... kinda put Kyra in Digimon?" Again, I blinked. "Okay, you just made absolutely no sense." Lacey looked down, looking like she was having difficulty finding words for what she wanted to say. "What I mean is sometimes, when I was bored, I'd kinda rewrite the Digimon story in my head, putting Kyra in it." "Okay, so what does that have to do with ." Suddenly, it dawned on me. "Oh." "Yeah." I nodded, still stunned. "And, uh, did Kyra have a digimon partner?" Lacey nodded. "Yep. When I first saw it, I really like Gatomon cause of her tough attitude and her fast speed, so I kinda replaced Kari with Kyra." "And did Kyra make those little moon ball thingies?" "They're called moon globes," Lacey corrected, still somewhat shaken. "Kyra. well, she kinda made one for every digi-destined to communicate with." "Wait, Kyra made them?" I repeated. "Yeah. Remember? Kyra's got her powers and all that?" "Oh yeah." Lacey originally created Kyra kind of like a witch with all kinds of powers and stuff. Really handy, if you think about it. I sighed, leaning back against my propped tail. "So, let me get this straight," I began slowly, trying to register this all through my head. "We're stuck as cartoons in the middle of your Digimon world, right?" She nodded. "And here, Gatomon is your partner, and you have all your powers, right?" She nodded again, this time more timidly. "And you're the sister of Tai and you-" "Well, no," she interrupted, glancing at me nervously. "See, I'm .. I mean, Kyra, is. well, his cousin, not his sister." "Oh, well, his cousin, then. Anything else you'd like to add?" I replied dryly. Lacey sighed, looking all of sudden really exhausted. "Trust me, it's too long a story to explain, now. But," she added, looking at me seriously, "we need to think of how to explain you. Gatomon knows you're not a digimon, and everybody will want to know who and what you are." "Why don't we just say I accidentally got bumped out of another world, or something? With all the crazy stuff that they've been through, it probably won't be too hard to believe," I said sarcastically. Lacey looked up at the sky, thinking my idea over. "Yeah, I suppose that would work. I could just say that as Digital Guardian, I was just checking up on the other worlds and you accidentally fell through my portal." I eyed her suspiciously. "Okay, a) you sound so much like you know what you're talking about, it's scary, and b) what do you mean by Digital Guardian?" "I'll explain it later," she said, standing as she looked out towards where Gatomon vanished. "Looks like Gatomon's back." Rolling my eyes, I suddenly thought of something that made me smile and look up at Lacey. "Hey, is Matt down there?" Glancing at me, she smiled, understanding what I was getting at. "Yep, he should be!" she replied, grinning. See, both Lacey and I have fought long and hard over one of our favorite characters, (and the one we definitely think is the cutest!) Matt! With dark, dreamy blue eyes, dirty blonde hair and a smooth voice accented by his guitar, there isn't a single time we've seen him on TV and desperately wish he were real! And I get to meet him up close! I thought, barely able to keep from squealing in delight. "Come on," Lacey said, glancing at me slyly, "don't want to keep them waiting, do we?" Nodding in agreement, I stood up and looked down at the ground. "Don't be nervous," Lacey said coyly. "I mean, if you're too scared, you could always take the long way down and I'll keep Matt company for you." Narrowing my eyes, I just muttered, "No thanks!" before squeezing my eyes shut and taking a huge jump forward past the branches, waiting to touch the ground. After a few seconds when I still didn't land, I cautiously opened one eye and saw the ground quickly rushing towards me. Somehow, the cat genes in me kept my fears down to a simmer as I fully opened both my eyes and prepared my legs for impact. Again, with surprising ease, I landed in a low, crouched position, and straightened, dusting off my skirt and legs. A soft thump behind me announced Lacey's arrival, grinning like a little girl when I turned to face her. "You didn't think I'd let you have Matt all to yourself, did you?" she asked. "Funny," I replied airily, "I was gonna say the same to you!" Footsteps ahead of us warned me that our private time was just about spent. "Don't forget, you can't call me Lacey!" she reminded me. "Sure thing, Kyra." I replied, sarcastically. "Thank you, Prance." "Ky, there you are!" We both spun around and nearly fainted. Matt jogged up to us with Gatomon and a blue and white-striped St. Bernard looking digimon with six arms and a yellow horn spurting from his head. Instead of wearing his normal green school uniform, he was clad in a loose, black T-shirt and blue jeans. A big, incredibly cute smile spread across his face, he stopped several feet in front of us, not even breathing heavily. By the way, Ky is Matt's nickname for me. Trying not to make a scene, my eyes flipped to Lacey. She glanced at me. Sorry, I forgot I could do this. well, until now. Gee, thanks for giving me the warning! "Uh, sorry about giving you all a scare." Lacey replied, smiling. "I was.um, taking care of Prance!" "Prance?" Matt repeated, adjusting his gaze towards me (ahhh, I swear I almost melted!) "Yeah," Lacey continued, "she kinda accidentally slipped through my portal when I was checking up on some of the other worlds." For the few moments of silence that followed, I was almost positive they all could have heard my heart pounding against my chest. I almost breathed out a sigh of relief when somebody finally spoke up. "Well why didn't you say so?" Gatomon demanded. "I wouldn't have been so hard on you if you would have told me!" The digimon at Matt's side laughed. "Yeah right. You'd still be hard on her even if she did tell you." "Gabumon's right," Matt replied, chuckling. "You're always giving her a hard time." Gatomon simply snorted, crossing her arms. "Why didn't you just take her back?" Gabumon asked. "To be honest," I spoke up rather shyly (cause Matt was watching me now!), "I. uh,. I really wanted to stay and. see this world! Yeah, because, you know, it's very different from my world, and, I admit, I was fascinated when I stumbled in it." Nice touch. Thank you, thank you, please save all applauses for later. Lacey rolled her eyes. "Well, I certainly can't blame you." Matt agreed, nodding. "The digital world is definitely an amazing place." "Yeah, and I didn't want to offend anybody by making her go back." Lacey added, playing along with my story. "I mean, if it were the real world, of course we'd have problems because of her ears and tail, but I didn't think she could cause too much trouble if she stayed here, right?" "Hey, you're the digital guardian, not me," Matt replied, shrugging. "It's really your decision. But," he added, looking at Lacey sternly, "Digital Guardian or not, you still promised to go to the picnic with the rest of us. Prance can come along, too. That is, if you want to." As he said this, he turned to me with the most gorgeous, sparkling blue eyes I have ever seen! For a few moments, I just found myself staring at his eyes, completely forgetting about everyone else around me (I didn't even need to see her to know Lacey had a tremendously smug, tremendously amused look on her face). "Oh, Prance?" she said, struggling to hold back the laughter that threatened to explode. "You still there?" I shook my head, knowing my cheeks were flushing lightly, and looked at Lacey. "Oh, uh, yeah! I mean, yes! I would love that!" "Great!" Matt exclaimed, smiling. "The more the merrier! Ky, you wanna zap us over there?" "Huh?" Lacey said dumbly, looking at him. "Oh! Uh, zap you there? Um, I'm actually kinda tired. I mean, I went through a lot of worlds, today, and I- " "It's okay, it's okay, you don't have to say anything else," he said, grinning. "Wouldn't want you to be too pooped for the picnic." And with that, he turned and began walking the way he came, Gabumon tagged faithfully beside him. Lacey looked down at Gatomon. "You coming?" In spite of her tough appearance, Gatomon smirked and leaped up onto Lacey's shoulder, who, to my surprise, seemed unfazed by the additional weight. What did he mean by "zap"? I asked. Transporting, basically. Since I don't have a grip on these powers, yet, I was planning on figuring them out later. I'm really looking forward to figuring out my wings! She added, a small smile sliding across her face. To be honest, though I wouldn't admit it aloud just yet, for both her sake and my own, I did hope we would be able to stay here long enough to enjoy it. I could tell that Lacey was totally having a blast. If anything, she was absolutely into her "character," literally acting the part perfectly. And I was, too! Not only was being in the digital world an adventure, but also, just being Prance was an adventure! Even something as simple as walking felt incredibly different, like every muscle in my body was ready and waiting to be used to my will. The power I felt was absolutely fantastic! As I was thinking all this to myself, I suddenly returned to reality and saw that we were there! And, another moment of stunned amazement, we were surrounded by all the characters I had previously known only through a quarter of an inch of television screen glass! Tai, the big, brown haired, hot-headed leader of the original digi- destined, sat by the picnic basket (no surprise) with his dinosaur-like digimon, Augumon. Next to him sat Davis, the newer digi-destined leader, with his energetic pal, Veemon, at his side, both with half a sandwich wedged in their mouths (again, no surprise). The rest of the guys, Izzy (the computer genius) and Tentomon, Joe (the paranoid school freak) and Gomamon, TK (Matt's sweet and friendly little brother) and Patamon, Cody (the youngest, but most wise and sensitive) and Armadillomon, and Ken (the kind and once evil digi-destined) and Wormmon sat close to the water's edge, talking and laughing. The girls sat together, watching Tai and Davis plow through the food, disgusted. Mimi (the somewhat self-centered but warm-hearted fashion diva) and Palmon, Sora (logical and loving) and Biyomon, and Yolei (the smart and short-tempered) and Hawkmon all gagged and giggled over the two "leaders'" behavior. "Hey, guys!" Matt called, waving. "Look who we found!" Instantly, everyone looked up and smiled. "Hey, Kyra! What took you so long?" TK said, grinning. "Yeah, two certain guys we know attempted to wait for you." Sora said, glancing at Tai and Davis. "But they failed." Mimi added, giggling. "Hey, who's your friend?" Cody asked, looking at me. As if the spotlight had focused on me, I suddenly felt self-conscience as everyone turned to look at me (or rather my ears and tail). "Hey, you guys be nice." Lacey warned, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "This is our guest, Prance. You don't mind if she tags along for the picnic, do you?" Immediately, Tai shoved the remainder of his sandwich down his throat (disgusting, yet at the same time amusing to watch) and ran up towards us, a big, goofy grin on his face. "Not at all!" he exclaimed, excited. Ooh, Heather, I think he likes you! Well, not exactly Matt, but he's kinda cute, too! Besides, knowing you, you probably already have Matt crazy about you, right?  
  
Well, not yet.  
  
I gave her a side-glanced smirk before smiling brightly at Tai. "Thanks." "No problem! Want something to eat?" "What?" Lacey asked, grinning. "You mean you and Davis actually left something in the basket?" At this comment, all of us laughed while Davis and Tai looked at each other, light hints of red growing across their cheeks. Well, as everyone expected, when we got to the basket, only crumbs remained. Luckily, Joe, (Mr. Reliable), had anticipated this and produced three more, each filled with food. So we all sat down by the water's edge, (Tai on one side of me, Kyra/Lacey on the other, and Matt on the other side of her), eating to our heart's delight. The food was great, and everybody seemed sincerely happy to have me around. Everyone had a story to tell, and by the time the picnic baskets were empty, we were all on our backs, laughing. Then, somebody suggested we do something to work off all the food, and before we knew it, all of us were in the water. While Mimi, Joe, and Palmon relaxed on the beach, we started our own game of water tag where Gomamon ended up being "it". Then, within seconds, he tagged Yolei, who then tagged Veemon, who tagged Davis, who tagged TK, who tagged Patamon, who tagged Tai, who tagged me, (no surprise). Finally, I ended up tagging Matt, who started going after Lacey and Gabumon. To my surprise, she completely flew underwater. Like a speed demon, she darted this way and that, always just a hair beyond Matt's reach. As I sat in the side-lines watching, I grinned as I thought about what she had said earlier.  
  
Not yet, huh? .hmph, 'not yet' my foot!  
  
"They look like a couple of kids, don't they?" I spun around, surprised when I saw TK standing behind me, looking at the two of them with a small, knowing smile on his face. I nodded. "Yeah. Let me guess, they're going out .. Uh, I mean, I think that's how you say it." I added quickly, just remembering that I wasn't supposed to know about all this, being from another world and all. Tk laughed. "Actually, that's what most people think." "They're not?" I asked, completely surprised (knowing Lacey, you could even say I was stunned!) "No, they're really just best friends. Really close best friends." "Best friends?" I repeated, skeptically. "Yep," TK replied, nodding. "See, as kids, they grew up together, closer than a brother and sister, you might say. But about eight years ago, Kyra accidentally got pulled into the Digital World, and she's lived here ever since. When my brother and the rest of us original digi-destined arrived, they ended up reuniting, and since then, they've almost been inseparable. Even though Kyra still lives here, she'd always visit Matt in the real world and he'd visit her here." "Wow." I said, sincerely surprised. I totally thought she'd have him eating out of her hand by now. Major surprise on my part! Well, while I thought about this, Matt finally gave up on Lacey and tagged Gabumon, who by this time was too tired to catch a snail, so we all headed back for shore. Most everyone, by the time they had dried, began to pack up their things and were saying their good-byes. As the humans began walking off and the digimon went their own directions, the original crowd ended up thinning to Lacey, TK, Matt, and me. "It was really nice meeting you, Prance," TK said, smiling. "We all had a lot of fun." "Yeah, me too! It was great!" "Maybe I ought to have her accidentally fall through my portals more often." Lacey said, laughing. "Maybe you should." Matt agreed. At this, we all laughed. "Hey Ky, you coming home?" Matt asked before leaving. I glanced at Lacey as she shook her head. "Nah, I'm going to stay with Prance." Matt shrugged, turning to leave. "Suit yourself." "Bye, Prance. Bye, Kyra." TK called, waving as he ran after his brother. "Bye, guys!" Lacey called back. I simply stared at her, placing my hand on my hip. "And what was that all about?" Lacey turned to look at me. "What?" "Oh, come on!" I said. "I think there's a lot more to Kyra's role in Digimon than you're telling me!" "Okay, okay," she droned, sitting on the ground and leaning against a tree trunk. Not wanting to miss anything, I hopped up on the first branch and sat myself down, wrapping my tail around it (I've discovered that I like sitting on branches- I pretty much figured it was the cat-thing, again). "Well, where do I begin?" Lacey asked, looking up at me. "Here's an easy start-" I began, "what's up with you and Matt?" Lacey sighed, grinning. "Figures you'd want to know that." "Just answer!" "Fine! In the way beginning, me and Matt were just-" "-best friends, yeah, I know. TK already told me." "Oh." She said. "Well, did he tell you about how I first came here?" "Yep." "What about after that?" "The whole reunion thing? Yep." "What about the adoption?" I blinked, staring down at her. "Adoption?" "Yeah. You remember the episodes where Myotismon was defeated, right?" I nodded. "Yeah, well, in my version, Matt's parents ended up adopting Kyra. Stupid, I know, but I was really bored. Anyway, officially, I'm supposed to be Matt and TK's sister, but unofficially, nothing's changed." "What happened to Kyra's original parents?" "They were killed by Myotismon when she was young." "Alright, I suppose that makes sense. But before, Matt said something about a guardian. What's that all about?" Lacey sighed again, slouching closer to the ground. "Okay, I was way too into all this re-writing thing, just to let you know." "Don't worry, I already know." I assured her, smirking. "Anyway, what you're thinking of is the digital guardian- basically a fancy title for somebody who pretty much watches over all the worlds, not just the digital world and the real world." I stared at her. "You're right. You have been way into all this." "No, really. I'm actually kinda proud of all the detail I went into. See, the digital guardian can be anyone or anything, digimon, human, whatever. Originally, Kyra was human. But when one guardian dies, its power automatically chooses another person to be the new one. Kyra's Mom was the guardian before her, and when she died, Kyra immediately gained her powers, the wings and everything. But, since the gap between her Mom's powers and hers was huge, there was a temporary moment of vulnerability in the barrier that protects the worlds from each other. A small tear in the wall between the Digital world and the real world ended up carrying her here." Okay, let me tell you this, my head was totally spinning after all that. "You seriously have no life, do you?" I said, not at all meaning to be rude. Lacey just looked down and blushed. "Yeah, well, once I got into it, I-" "-got sucked into it, unable to escape until you had completely rewritten the entire storyline behind Digimon, right?" I supplied for her. "Well, I guess so, huh?" "No, ya think?" Lacey remained silent. I sighed, thinking I might have gone too far, and jumped down besides her, giggling in spite of myself. "Hey, I didn't mean to give you the third degree." "Yeah, but you were totally right about everything you said, though." "Hey, don't worry about it. Besides," I added, "this all would have made for an awesome fanfic!" Lacey looked up at me with a half-hearted chuckle. "Yeah, if we weren't in it." I sighed again, plopping down on the ground next to her. "Yeah, that I'd have to agree with." "I wonder how we got here in the first place." Lacey pondered, staring up at the sky. "I mean, after all this, we can pretty much deduct that this is definitely no dream!" "Yeah, no kidding." "Do you think maybe we might have somehow stumbled on a real digivice back at home that somehow transported us here?" I glanced at her, quirking an eyebrow. "Okay, now even in light of all that's happened, don't you think that's a little far-fetched?" "Yeah, I suppose so."  
  
"But you are right," I added, leaning my chin against my palm and looking out across the water. "This is no dream, and we need to figure why the heck all this is happening."  
  
"Yeah," Lacey muttered dreamily. "This all started up without me even having to wish on a shooting star." My eyes widened as I jumped to my feet, spinning towards Lacey. "What did you say!?" Confused, she stammered, "Uh, I didn't have to wish on a shooting star?" Realization washing over me, I slowly sank to the ground, my head collapsing into my hands. "Heather? You okay? What's going on?" "My fault." I moaned. "This is all my fault." Lacey crawled forward, placing her hand on my shoulder. "What's all your fault?" "All this! The bodies, the Digimon world, everything. It's all my fault!" I screamed. "Wait, what do you mean? What are you talking about?" I felt the tears running down my face as I struggled to control myself. "What I mean is today after school, I got into a fight with my Mom. Normally, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I was still upset about what Jason had said, so I was a bit harder on her than I would have liked, and I kinda blew up at her. Afterwards, I was feeling miserable, and . and I looked at my picture of Prance on the wall . and I . I kind of made a wish that we could . we could." Understanding what I meant, Lacey leaned forward and hugged me tightly, pressing her cheek against the top of my head. I could feel my ears drooping as I silently cried, hugging my tail to my chest. "All this is my fault. It's because of me we're all in this." "Hey, don't worry about it." Lacey said soothingly. "It's not that bad." "How can you say that? We're cartoons!" "Yeah, but think about this. As Kyra and Prance, we have the best opportunity to get through all this!" "But-" "Heather, something in that wish brought us here to my Digimon world, and that gives us an advantage, right? Just calm down, we'll be okay." "I knew it." Suddenly, we both looked up and gasped. We saw something that made our insides curl. "You're not Kyra." Gatomon stood staring at the two of us with her paws crossed. Lacey jumped up, eyes wide, staring at the digimon. "W-what are you talking about? Of course I am!" Gatomon narrowed her eyes. "Don't insult me! You're not Kyra!" "But she really is!" I joined, slowly rising to my feet. "Why would she lie to you?" Snorting, she placed her paws on her hips. "Fine then. If you're really Kyra, then you wouldn't mind opening your wings, would you?" I gulped, glancing at Lacey out of the corner of my eyes, who probably looked just as nervous as I did. Neither of us had figured out much of our 'abilities' yet except for Lacey's mind-communication thing. Great, what are you gonna do now? I asked. I guess I could try and open them, she replied rather nervously. With doubtful thoughts racing through my mind, both Gatomon and me watched as Lacey clenched her fists and tried to push. Exactly what she was pushing, I didn't know, but I could tell Gatomon wasn't being fooled. After about two minutes of 'pushing', Gatomon finally sighed and rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't know who you two are, but I know Kyra, and you aren't her!" I turned to Lacey, not sure of what exactly to say. "Might as well give it up." Nodding glumly, Lacey looked at Gatomon. "Does anyone else know?" Again, she snorted. "No. I didn't want to upset anyone while they were all having a good time. Especially Matt," she added, eying Lacey warily. "How did you find out?" I asked. Then, she threw me the suspicious glance. "The first time I found you, you called her Lacey." "Guess that'd be kinda strange, huh?" I replied dumbly. "No, you think?" Gatomon spat. "Plus, she kept on repeating herself all throughout the day." "And let me guess. " Lacey finished. "You heard the two of us talking just now, huh?" "Yep." "Oh boy." I sighed, sinking to the ground again. Lacey just stood where she was, stunned and at a loss of what to say. "So would you mind explaining who you two are, and why you," she added, pointing at Lacey, "look like Kyra." We exchanged glances, not sure of whom would speak first. "Well, it's a really, really long story." Lacey began, rubbing her neck apprehensively. "Try me."  
  
"So you mean to tell me that you two come from a world where all this, me, the others, everything, it's all a cartoon. And everything that involves Kyra, that you made it all up, but somehow, you ended up here anyway?" "Sounds crazy, doesn't it?" I asked. "Just a little," she replied sarcastically. "I mean, you guys are telling me that my best friend and digi-destined partner is nothing more than a figment of your imagination!" "We're both really sorry, though." Lacey insisted. "We were hoping to figure out how to get home without bothering anybody." "You mean you don't know?" Gatomon asked. "You think we'd still be here if we did?" I pointed out. "Well, if it's another world you're looking for, can't you just travel to it? I mean, with Kyra's abilities, you can travel from world to world." "Yeah, but only two problems with that idea." Lacey replied. "First, like we said before, neither of us has figured out how to work our powers yet. And second, even if I did know how to, we couldn't find our world in a bunch of cartoon ones." "She's right," I agreed. "We're pretty much stuck here." At this comment, we all took in a deep breath and sighed. "So what are you going to do now?" Gatomon asked. "I don't know." I admitted, yawning. "For now, I guess the only thing we can do is stick around here until we figure something out." "I say we think about this more in the morning." Lacey suggested, yawning herself. "I'm tired." "Me too." I said. "Turning into a cartoon is a lot more tiring than it sounds." Lacey giggled. Gatomon rolled her eyes. "What? It is!" 


	4. Here we Go Again

Chapter 4: Here we go again!  
  
W hat? Darkness. Complete Darkness. Empty of all light. Nothing. What ... is this? It was strange. It was as if I were dreaming, but almost not dreaming. Like I can feel myself somewhere, but I can't feel anything at all. It's hard to explain, but somehow, I just knew I was ... Suddenly, mindlessly, I found myself staring down. Or was it really me? No, it wasn't. It was more like I was somewhere else, kinda watching everything from a distance, like on TV or something. But I wasn't the one with the remote. Below my feet, I saw my reflection- I must have been standing on a mirror or something. It was the 'Prance' me, though, not the real me. I just stood there, staring at my reflection, looking lost and confused. I don't get it. Where am I? What is this all? Don't you know? No. Do you? Yes. What is it? It is . your destiny. My destiny? I pulled my head up slowly and looked around, partly to find a face behind the voice, and partly to figure out what part of my destiny this all was. This is . my destiny? Yes. But, I don't understand. Your destiny is darkness. Darkness? Yes. No. It can't be. But it is. No.  
  
"Heather?" I felt myself being shaken back and forth, but my mind refused to return to consciousness. "Heather, get up!" Finally giving in, I slowly opened one eye. "Kyra?" "Well, sort of, yeah. Still Kyra, anyway," she replied. "But I don't get how." "How what?" "Look around and you'll see what I mean." Now sort of apprehensive, I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up, yawning. Scratching lazily behind my right ear, I opened my eyes to a big surprise. "M-my room!?!" "Told ya." No kidding, I thought to myself as I looked around, jaw dropped. Everything was exactly the same as how I left it- the bed was tasseled from me laying on it, my backpack was still slumped on the ground by my desk, my stuffed german Sheppard and old raccoon were both laying on my bed against the wall. I looked around, awestruck. "Wait a second, how is this possible? We're back in my room, but we're both still . well, animated!" "Yeah, and uh . that's not the only thing wrong with this picture." Lacey added, pointing at something behind me. Not wanting to look, I forced myself to turn. "So this is your world? It sure is really weird!" "Gatomon! What're you doing here!?" She rolled her eyes, crossed her paws, and gave me one of those 'you've- gotta-be- kidding-me' looks. "You think I actually want to be here!?" she spat. "I fall asleep next to Seadramon's Lake, and next thing I know, I'm apparently tagging along side you two to this place!" I sighed, suddenly feeling totally exhausted. "So what do we do, now?" Lacey asked, looking at me. Shrugging lazily, I stood up, and began walking around, twirling my tail between my fingers. "I don't know. I mean, we could try going outside and see if anyone's around, or maybe we could call someone, or something." "Are you kidding!?" Gatomon exclaimed. "Think about it- if you two were completely surprised by the whole 'wish' thing, what makes you think any of your other humans will understand?" "She's right," Lacey agreed, nodding. "No one would believe us if we tried to tell them, and they'd probably drop in a dead faint and call themselves crazy if we showed up in person." "Well, what else can we do?" I asked, starting to feel desperate as I walked to the door. "Why don't we just think this over some more?" Lacey suggested. "I'm sure we'll think of something." "Including how to get me back home?" Gatomon asked. "Of course," I replied. "I'm going into the bathroom to wash my face. Maybe if we're lucky, it'll all just wash off!" I added, smiling grimly. "Who knows?" Knowing very well it wouldn't, I reached my hand forward anyway. "Ouch!" "What's the matter?" Lacey asked. I rubbed my fingers gingerly. "The doorknob just shocked me!" "Static electricity- nothing wrong with that," Lacey said, returning to her thoughts. "Yeah, I guess not, " I replied, although for some strange reason, a strange, lurking feeling told me otherwise. Trying to ignore it, I reached out again. This time, no shock. Of course not. There's nothing wrong with it. I must be losing it- all this animated stuff is infecting my head, I chided myself as I opened the door. I groaned. "Oh man, this cannot be happening!" "What is it?" Lacey asked, joining me. "What's the ." She no longer had a need to continue as we both stared out at the vast plains of green grass before us. Animated green grass, might I add. "Sure, why not?" I exclaimed hysterically. "First, I end up turning us into cartoons in the Digimon series. Why wouldn't a rippling field of cartoon grass be where my bathroom was?" "What next?" Lacey asked, still taken back, looking back and forth between my normal, non-cartoon room and the huge expanse before her. I sighed, thinking over it all in my head. "Well, there's no point in staying in my room. We might as well find out where we are." "Good idea. I mean, for all we know, we could be in some unexplored area of the Digital World." "This isn't the Digital World." Startled, both Lacey and me turned to face Gatomon who was staring absentmindedly out at the scenery. "How do you know?" I asked. Gatomon glanced up at Lacey briefly before returning her gaze to the field. "I traveled all over the Digital World with Kyra, and I've never seen anything like this before." "Do you think we could be in the real world?" Lacey asked. "Where else could we be if we weren't in the Digital World?" she replied. "Well, Kyra's the Digital Guardian, right?" Lacey said. "Maybe somehow or other, I got us to some other dimension." While the two of them talked, I thought. Out of nowhere, a bizarre theory came to mind, and I instantly dismissed it. But the more I tried to think, the more the idea repeated itself over and over in my mind. "Heather?" I scrunched my brow, playing with the idea of saying my opinion aloud or keeping it to myself. Finally, I looked over at Lacey. "What is it?" she asked. "Well, I kind of have an idea, and it may be totally crazy, but-" Lacey smiled. "Are you kidding? Look at us- we're cartoons! I don't think we're allowed to accept any idea that's below crazy!" If you say so.. "Even if I were to say something like maybe we weren't even in the Digimon world anymore?" She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Slowly closing it again, she furrowed her brows, staring blankly at my face while her mind whirled. While she was busy thinking, I glanced down at Gatomon. "Are you positive this is nowhere in the Digital World?" I asked again. Her eyes narrowed to bare slits, her expression obvious. "Okay, okay, sorry I asked!" I muttered, turning back to Lacey. "Well, what do you think?" "Well," she began, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "it does make sense, doesn't it? But," she added, looking up at me warily, "if it is true, and we are someplace else, then where are we?" I shrugged. Gatomon rolled her eyes and started walking forward. "Hey, where are you going?" Lacey asked. Gatomon looked back at the two of us, an impatient look on her feline face. "What do you think? If you want to find out where you are, than you can come with me, but if all you're gonna do is sit there and think about things, then I'm leaving." Lacey blinked, briefly exchanging surprised looks with me. Without a moment's hesitation, we both walked towards her, occasionally glancing back at the random open door in the middle of the field, looking as if it had always been there. After Gatomon had turned back around, I leaned over towards Lacey and whispered, "Man, since when was Gatomon such a big-" I cut my sentence short. Gatomon was staring straight at me with a wicked sneer. For a brief moment, I realized, I forgot how well her big ears had worked. Afterall, she was a cat, too. If anything, I should know better than anyone exactly how well they worked. Well, after that incident, we pretty much kept walking. And walking. And walking. Oh, yeah. And after that .. big surprise, we did some more walking! I swear, if I had paws, they'd be on fire! "Ugh, can't we sit and take a rest!" I moaned, sinking to the ground. "We've been walking for at least two hours, probably three!" Gatomon rolled her eyes and crossed her paws. "Weakling" was the word I thought I heard her mutter under her breath. However, being so tired, I didn't even have the strength to argue back. Sighing, Lacey nodded. "I agree, I'm kinda tired, myself. Afterall, its not like we're in any supreme hurry, right? A little break won't kill anybody." As she said this, she leaned down and sat on the ground. "Ouch!" I looked up at her, startled. "What's the matter?" "Ugh, I sat on something .. hey, I think there's something in my pocket!" she exclaimed, running her fingers over the small lumps at her side. "Was it there before?" "No .. at least, I'm pretty sure it wasn't." I rolled my eyes. Typical Lacey. "Well, what is it?" Curiously, she reached in her pocket and pulled out several small objects. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. How many more surprises can I get in one day? "If those are what I think they are, then-" "-we don't need to worry about where we are anymore." I nodded, unable to take my eyes off the six little balls sitting on her palm. A little bigger than marbles, they appeared to be split in half, one side colored white, the other red. On each one, a small, silver button sat in the center, directly in the middle of the two colors. Gatomon looked back and forth between me and Lacey, then finally down at the balls. "What are they?" "Poke-balls," we answered in unison. Obviously not any less confused, she tried a different question. "Okay, then what are poke-balls?" Ignoring her question, I glanced at Lacey. "Do you think there's anything in them?" "Well," she began nervously, "if this is my version of Pokemon, with Kyra in it that is, then I'm willing to bet there is." I stared at her skeptically. "Wait a minute, you mean you put Kyra in Pokemon, too?" Lacey looked away, trying to hide the red creeping on her cheeks. But, despite her efforts, I could see them plainly. She couldn't hide it from me if she tried. I sighed, shaking my head. "Fine, forget it for now. But what kind of Pokemon do you have?" I added, sounding more interested. Lacey brightened. "Lots. Almost all of them, really." "Figures." I replied, smirking. Lacey smiled, rubbing her head. "Yeah, well. oh, and hey," she added, visibly perking up, "if I'm the Kyra from Pokemon, then that means I can talk to them!" I stared at her in disbelief. "What!? You mean you can talk to Pokemon!?" "Yup!" "Oh brother," I muttered, glancing at her childish expression. "Aww, come on. Don't be mad! I wanna see what's inside!" Eagerness overcoming annoyance, I leaned forward anxiously as Lacey took one of the small poke-balls and pressed the button. Instantly, the poke- ball turned into a sphere of pure radiance and a shaft of light appeared at my feet. Though I had my hand covering my eyes due to the intensity of the light, I could barely make out the outline of something appearing from the shaft. As the light diminished, I slowly removed my hand. The thing that came out of the poke-ball was gone? However, before I could even say, "huh?" I heard Lacey's giggle and her exclaim, "Raichu!" Spinning around, I saw the pokemon seated on her shoulder, licking her cheek affectionately, which resulted in Lacey squealing even more. The creature itself looked kind of like a golden brown mouse the size of a soccer ball with long, thin rabbit ears that curved to a fine point and little yellow circles on its cheeks. Its tail was similar to Gatomon's in that it was long and thin until the end where a sharp, yellow lightning bolt sat, about the size of its head. This was Lacey's Raichu. Apparently. "That's a Raichu?" I said curiously, tilting my head to one side in fascination. "Aren't they supposed to be bigger?" Lacey paused from her playful activities to look up at me. "Well, yeah, but when I first thought of all this, I wanted a Raichu, but not big and fat like normal ones. So, I made this one smaller with a longer tail so it could run faster than even a regular Pikachu, and voila! The birth of Raichu!" I smirked. "You always had a need for speed, didn't you?" "Yup!" "Figures. So what else ya got?" Well, after a few minutes of experimenting, me and Gatomon were introduced to Lacey's other pokemon- a black, dog-like thing with a thin, devil tail and bones strapped around its back and head called Houndoom, a beautiful blue water serpent with big black eyes and a round light blue ball on its tail known as Dragonair, a huge praying mantis type pokemon called Scyther, a giant bird called Pigeot, and finally a creepy ghost thing, a Gengar. "Not bad," I admitted, after she had returned all but Raichu to their poke- balls. "Although personally, I wouldn't have chosen something as freaky looking as Gengar, it certainly isn't a bad line up. I like the Dragonair." Lacey grinned. "I thought you would." With a sigh, I leaned back and glanced at her. "Kay, we know where we are. What now?" Lacey shrugged, looking back and forth between Gatomon, Raichu and me. "I don't know, what do you think we should do?" "I know what you should do." Instantly, the three of us were on our feet, looking around wildly. "Who's there?" "Where is it coming from?" "What's going on?" A second voice, low and somewhat squeaky, laughed. "I know what you should do, too!" I spun around, searching desperately for the source of the voice. "Where are you!?" Finally, a third voice spoke out with a thick, kind of New Yorker accent. "So, shall we tell dem?" "Heather, do you see them?" Lacey asked. "Of course not!" I screamed. "You think if I did, I'd still be looking around like an idiot!?" "I think. you should prepare for trouble." Simultaneously, Lacey and I stopped and stared at each other, realization washing over us. Raichu, sitting on her shoulder, seemed to have rolled its eyes. Gatomon, completely oblivious to this all, stood defensively between us, eyes whirling around. "Perhaps, you might want to make that double." "You've got to be kidding me!" Lacey exclaimed, looking at her Pokemon exasperatingly. "Oh, no, not them!" I muttered, smacking my palm against my forehead. Gatomon looked back and forth between the two of us, the hair on the back of her neck rising in slow anger. "What the heck are you talking about?" From out of nowhere, three shadows appeared on the surface of a low-lying branch on a nearby tree. "To protect the world from devastation!" "To unite all people within our nation!" "Here we go again," I muttered, lowering myself to the ground. Following suit, Lacey and Gatomon sat on either side of me, the latter still completely confused. "To denounce the evils of truth and love!" "To extend our reach from the stars above!" Lacey nudged me with her elbow, grinning childishly. "Gee, too bad we didn't bring any popcorn!" "Or a pillow," I added, using my hand to cover my gaping mouth as I yawned. "This looks like this might take a while." "Rai-ai chuu!!" replied the pokemon from her shoulder. Lacey giggled, turning to me. "Heh heh, it said, 'Unfortunately, it always does!'" Nodding my agreement, we all turned our attention back to the three figures just now emerging from the shadows. "Jessie!" cried a tall, blue-eyed woman with fuchsia-pink colored hair that stuck straight out behind her. Her companion, a lanky, green-eyed guy with a big mouth and short, kinda spiky blue hair, stepped out beside her, adding enthusiastically, "James!" "Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!" "Surrender now, or prepare to fight, fight, fight!" Suddenly, the third member of their party appeared, a loud mouth cat-like pokemon with a curly, brown tail and a gold coin plastered on its forehead, striking a frightening pose in front of its two human friends, crying triumphantly, "Mee-owth, that's right!" "Hey, you three done, yet?" I called, unable to resist a second yawn. "We've kind of got things to do, today, you know?" The woman, Jessie, glared at us, a gigantic vein popping out through her bright hair (anime terminology- "popping vein" is usually used when someone is dramatically pissed or ticked off). "You just shut up you snot-nosed, cat-eared little twerp! You have absolutely no idea how hard it is to repeat the Team Rocket motto time and time again, especially when little brats like you keep on picking on us about it!" "Yeah!" piped up James defensively. "Not to mention the difficulties in saying our motto with pride after all those humiliating defeats!" "You idiot!" Jessie screamed, turning on her own team member. "You're supposed to be encouraging Team Rocket efforts, not putting them down!" And with that, she punched him in the face, causing him to fly backward and off the branch with a bright red handprint on his face. From within the bushes of his landing was heard the soft, "Sorry, Jessie." Jessie, ignoring him, folded her arms and looked back at us. "Ugh, pay no attention to him. Where were we?" I raised my eyebrows, exchanging blank expressions with Lacey. "I know," the other pokemon spoke up, grinning evilly. "We was just at the pawt where we snatch up the twoirps pokemon!" Jessie smiled, regaining her confident position. "Oh yeah, that's right. So, you can either hand 'em over, nice and easy, or we can fight for it. Your choice." I shrugged indifferently. "Doesn't matter to me. Ask her," I said, jerking my thumb at Lacey. "She's the one with the pokemon, not me." Jessie paused, blinking. "Wait a minute, what happened to your pokemon?" "Like I said, I don't have any." "Yes you do," Jessie insisted, looking up in thought as she counted on her fingers. "Let's see, you've got Vulpix, Ninetales, Houndour, Growlithe, Arcanine and. and. um, Meowth, what else did she have? I know it was another fire-type." "A Charizard," the cat replied, stroking his tail tenderly. "I remember cause a dat time it toasted my tail." "Oh yeah, that's right. So you see," Jessie announced proudly, "you can't fool us. You do have pokemon! So hand 'em over!" Startled, I glanced at Lacey. Reading my expression, she shrugged her shoulders. "Honest, I don't know a thing about this! I never said a thing about you!" A bewildered look crossed my face as I looked down at the ground. "Well, then, how did I-" "Ahem!" Jessie said impatiently. "Enough with your problems. Now it's time to worry about ours! We want your pokemon, and we want them now! Arbok!" Holding out a poke-ball of her own, she released a gigantic purple cobra with gold and black designs on its hood. It hissed viciously in our direction, throwing us venomous glances. "You too, Weezing!" James shouted from the bushes, releasing his own pokemon, a strange-looking pair of gas balls with eyes and toxic symbols on their centers. Throwing an affirmative glance towards Lacey, I watched as she nodded and turned to Raichu, opening her mouth to say something when- "Thunderbolt!" From behind us, a streak of yellow lightning whizzed through the air, striking the group of pokemon and humans in front of us. And of course, like in classic anime style, a bright light surrounded them, their eyes bulging and their hair dramatically skewering the air as thousands of watts of electricity charged through them. Seconds later, a massive explosion wafted clouds of dust in our eyes, and before we knew it, Team Rocket was flying in the air, muttering something on the way up. However, despite their distance, one phrase was clearly shouted out. "Team Rocket is blasting off aga-ain!" I blinked, mouth gaping, totally confused, as were Lacey and Gatomon. "Um. okay. what just happened?" "You're asking me?" Gatomon snapped. "Uh, hey guys?" We turned to Lacey, startled at her shocked expression. "What?" we said in unison. Eyes wide, she merely pointed at something behind us, mumbling, "Gee, think. We're in Pokemon, and Team Rocket was just blasted out of the sky by a thunderbolt. Any ideas come to mind?" I rolled my eyes at her dramatics, turning to where she pointed. "Don't worry, I think I can guess." "Prance! Kyra! Are you guys okay?" Again, certainly not for the first or last time today, I spun around to find a defensive Lacey looking at me confused. "I swear, I have no idea how they know you!" Before I could respond, three figures emerged from the woods. The first was a boy of about ten or eleven years with thick, black hair hidden underneath a red and white baseball cap. A black t-shirt was covered by a blue and white jacket and he wore loose blue jeans and red sneakers. Ash ran forward, watching the spot where Team Rocket had flew off. His companion, a girl about the same age, ran forward towards us. Her bright red-orange hair was tied back in a ponytail at the side of her head, and her green eyes overflowed with concern. She wore a short, bright yellow shirt with red straps running over her shoulders to her light blue jean shorts. In her arms was what looked like half an eggshell with brightly colored geometric designs painted on it. It's upper half was broken, however, and sprouted from the inside was something resembling a pale yellow crown with two eyes and a bubbly smile. Seeing that we were okay, Misty sighed, smiling, while Togepi trilled joyously. The third newcomer was another pokemon, slightly resembling Raichu, but different. Its mouse body was pure yellow, with black-tipped rabbit ears and a thunder shaped tail. Bright red circles on its cheeks replaced the yellow ones on Raichu's, and its black eyes shined curiously. "You guys okay?" Misty asked, extended her hand towards me. Tentatively, I took it and pulled myself up, dusting my skirt off with my hands and tail. "Um, thanks. Misty." Misty grinned. "Don't mention it." Ash rejoined us, Pikachu hopping to his shoulder as he helped Lacey up. "Well, Team Rocket's gone. For now, anyway." "Yeah," Misty sighed, "those three always find some way to come back and bug us." "Yeah," I agreed, "we kinda noticed." "So where were you guys?" Ash asked, turning to Lacey. "Last time we saw you guys, we were at the Pokemon Center back at the last town, talking to Professor Oak. Next thing we knew, we woke up this morning and you guys were gone!" "Uh. well, we. um," Lacey stammered, glancing at me for help. "Well, Prance wants to tell you, don't you, Prance?" I could feel the sweatdrop sliding down my head as I glared at Lacey, my eyebrow raised. "Oh, I do, do I?" I replied, my voice low and vicious. Lacey quickly picked up my negative vibe, smiling nervously with a typical anime expression as she backed up. Ignoring her, I turned to Misty and Ash, who were watching me curiously. Scratching my head, I looked up at the sky, thinking. "Well. you see, we left early this morning because." Out of the corner of my mind, I saw Lacey muttering something to Raichu, who exchanged a few words with its trainer as well. Suddenly, she spoke up. "Sorry about that," she replied, rubbing the back of her head. "See, this morning, Prance saw a wild pokemon, a fire-type, and of course, she couldn't resist the chance to go capture it. Since it was so early in the morning, and neither of us wanted to wake you, we left, planning to come back before you woke up. But as we were on our way back, we ran into Team Rocket, and. well, you pretty much know the rest." For a brief moment, I stared dumbly at Lacey, wondering where in the heck she thought up something like that. But I didn't have time to complete that thought for Misty smiled and Ash laughed, glancing at Pikachu. "Well, I'm just glad we got here in time to help out." "Not like we couldn't take care of 'em," I replied confident, planning to ask Lacey about her explanation later. "Not without these, you don't," Misty replied, pulling out something from the green backpack she wore. Placing it in my hand, I looked down at my palm and gasped. Six tiny poke- balls sat comfortably in my hand. For a brief moment, Misty looked at me strangely, probably questioning my amazed expression. But before she could comment on it, Lacey stepped forward, wrapping her arm around Misty's shoulders. "Hah, you know Prance, so excited to catch a new fire-type pokemon, she completely forgot to bring her own. Sound like anyone we know?" she added, glancing in Ash's direction. He paused before stepping forward, flushing angrily. "Hey! Now what do you mean by that!?" Misty looked back at him and smirked. "Oh nothing, Ash. She's just saying that you tend to have a habit of jumping into stuff before you even think about it." "I do not!" he protested. "I think about stuff all the time!" Misty, Lacey and I exchanged glances, rolling our eyes amusingly. From his shoulder, Pikachu cried, "Pi-ka pi-ka chuuu!!" Lacey laughed. "It seems Pikachu agrees with us." "Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed, looking at Pikachu, shocked. "You don't really think so, do you?" Pikachu uttered an apologetic, "Pi-ka piii." The three of us laughed as Ash sank to the ground, digging his hands in his hair. As I looked around, marveling once again at who and where I was, I suddenly noticed somebody was missing. "Kyra!" I hissed, flexing my index finger so that she could come closer to me. Doing so, I leaned forward and whispered, "Where's Gatomon?" Lacey paused, blinking. "Wow, I don't really know." Looking around, Lacey added, "The last time I saw her was back when Team Rocket was." Suddenly, we both gasped, heads spinning around to face each other. I spoke first. "You don't think she could have been-" "-blasted away with Team Rocket?" Lacey finished. "I really hope not." "Psst!" Simultaneously, we looked up, recognizing the voice instantly. "Gatomon?" we said together. "Shh!" she hissed from behind us. Spinning around, we saw her two purple tufted ears sticking out from behind a bush. Glancing back to make sure Misty and Ash were still distracted by their own affairs, I darted into the bushes, Lacey following behind. "What happened to you?" was the first question Lacey sputtered. "We thought you were blown away with Team Rocket." Gatomon raised an eyebrow. "You think I was stupid enough to get caught up with that bunch of losers?" Lacey rubbed the back of her head, light pink appearing on her cheeks. "Well, . no, not exactly." "Look we were just worried about you," I said defensively. "What happened, anyway?" Gatomon snorted, folding her arms. "Duh, I snuck back here while you guys were all yapping away. I've been here, waiting for one of you to notice I was gone while you were playing around with those fools." I clenched my fists at my sides. "You know, you've got a real attitude problem. Ever since the beginning, you've always had a problem with everything and everyone. How come I never remembered you having this much of an attitude before." "Yeah? Well, sometimes things tend to happen when you begin to lose faith in everything you've know to be true your entire life!" she spat furiously. "Hey, both of you calm down!" Lacey interrupted, stepping in between the two of us. "We don't need to be fighting, especially right now." "Whatever," Gatomon muttered. "Same here," I added. "Anyway, exactly what is it we're supposed to be doing right now?" Lacey shrugged. "I don't really know. I guess first of all, we figure out who we are in here and why you're included in it," she began, pointing at me. "Since this whole storyline is wacky, if we find out why, maybe we can figure out how to get out of here." "Sounds like a good enough plan to me," I replied, shrugging indifferently. With a grin, I added, "Actually, sounds like a great plan. Just play along with the story, right? I think I can do that." Lacey smirked. "You just wanna try out your fire pokemon." "So?" I replied innocently. Rolling her eyes, Lacey turned back to Gatomon.  
  
"You had better stay close but out of sight, you know?" Gatomon rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know. By now, I'm pretty much used to it." "Oh yeah, huh?" Lacey replied, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "You did have to do a lot of hiding away whenever Kyra went to the Real world with everybody else, huh?" Gatomon threw Lacey an intensely hateful look. She took the hint. "Ugh, never mind. Anyway, since you're so familiar with this, I take it you know what to do," Lacey said, pulling her backpack to her front and pointing to the open end. Rolling her eyes again, Gatomon uncrossed her arms and jumped inside. Lacey waited until she made herself comfortable before pulling at the zip tap, leaving a small pocket open for her to breathe from. Swinging the backpack over her shoulder, Lacey suddenly noticed Raichu sitting next to her, staring at her curiously. Lacey sighed. "Don't worry. I promise I'll explain it all later." "Good luck," Gatomon muttered from inside her backpack. Ignoring her, the two of us stood up, walking out from our secured spot. "There you are," Misty said. "For a moment we thought we had lost you again." "Sorry about that," I replied. "Well, anyway," Ash said, calling Pikachu to his shoulder, "we had better get going. We have a long way ahead of 


	5. What's Going On?

Chapter 5: What's going on? "S o." I began, wondering where to start as I looked back briefly at Lacey, "what exactly happened while we were gone?" Ash looked at me and grinned, jerking a thumb at his redheaded companion. "Oh nothing. Misty just had a nervous breakdown when she woke up and saw you gone." *WHACK!* Lacey bit her lip to keep from laughing and I jumped back in surprise as Ash rubbed his sore head in agony. Misty, her face completely red in rage, held her fist up to his face menacingly. "ME? Ash Ketchum, I swear, you are the biggest liar on the planet! I did not have a nervous breakdown!" "Could've fooled me," Lacey whispered into my ear. I giggled quietly. "Really! You freaked out just as much as me and you know it!" Misty declared, an enormous popping vein swelling above her forehead. "Well," Ash muttered meekly, "maybe just a little." At this, I had to laugh out loud. Seriously, Ash is so adorable when he looks like that! All innocent and hurt- it was just too cute!. and funny as heck! "That's quite a sister you've got there," I said to Lacey, nudging her in the side with my elbow. Instantly, Misty and Ash stopped, staring at me. I stopped walking and turned around, facing them with a confused expression. "What?" Ash, shaking off his surprise, laughed. "Hah, that's funny." Again, I stared at Ash, insisting, "What?" "Saying Misty was Kyra's sister," he replied as-a-matter-of-factly. I looked up at Lacey who stood behind them, shrugging her shoulders in complete confusion. Looking back at Ash, I smiled nervously. "Uh, yeah. Really funny." Jabbing a finger into Misty's shoulder, Ash smirked. "Maybe that's her way of saying she doesn't wanna be your sister anymore, Misty." For the split second that followed, my jaw dropped in disbelief, but as Misty was busy yelling at Ash, and he was busy defending himself, no one but the girl who echoed my expression noticed. But before I could step forward to ask anyone about it, Ash pulled away and gruffly said, "Come on, we still have a long way to go." Misty, with a satisfied grin on her face, followed suit. Taking the opportunity, I briskly walked up to Lacey, and together, the two of us held the rear. "I thought you said she was your sister!" I hissed as soon as I was sure the others were out of hearing distance. "I thought so, too!" she replied sheepishly. "At least, that's how I had it written. But then again, like I said before, everything's been going wacky. I mean, if they seem to know you, and you seem to be a part of all this, I guess it would kind of make sense that the rest was messed up." "Make sense!? Please, elaborate, Lacey! Tell me, exactly what part of all of this makes sense!?" "Okay, point taken, but still, there's gotta be an explanation for everything, right? I mean, people don't just randomly turn into cartoons on a daily basis, do they?" "I don't know, you tell me!" Lacey sighed, resting her hands on the back of her head and looking up at the puffy, white clouds. "I wish I could," she said softly. I shook my head, trying to ease my frustration. "Alright, let's just get our facts straight, for a minute. You and I. well, Prance and Kyra, we're in the world of Pokemon. Not only in the world," I added carefully, "but in the storyline, as well. Apparently, I'm Misty's sister, and we don't even know where you come to play yet. We both have pokemon, and. hey, wait a minute, speaking of which, where in the world did you come up with that whole bit about me out capturing a fire pokemon?" I asked, eying her curiously. Lacey pointed her finger at the creature still on her shoulder. "He told me." I nodded. "Okay, so I guess that's another thing we can add to the list- somehow, we've been written in a while ago. But why?" "And why has my original story been changed?" Lacey added thoughtfully. "Or better yet," I corrected, "why were any of the stories, both this one and the one from Digimon, changed from what they used to be in the first place?" Lacey nodded, rubbing her chin. "Who knows? Maybe there's a reason we're here." I smirked. "Well, aren't you the optimistic one?" Lacey grinned. "Well, it never hurts, now, does it?" "Hey, you guys!" Lacey and I paused, looking up at Misty. "What?" "Well," Ash began, "it doesn't look like we're gonna make it to that town Professor Oak told us about today, so we're going to stop at a Pokemon Center not far away to rest for the night, kay?" "Um, sure, okay," I replied, somewhat confused. As the two of them turned back around, I looked at Lacey questioningly. "What town do you think they mean?" Lacey shrugged. "Dunno." "Why don't you ask him?" I suggested, pointing at Raichu. Realizing it was the object of our conversation, its ears perked and it looked at Lacey curiously. Turning her head towards it, Lacey asked politely, "Hey Raichu? What did Ash mean by 'that town Professor Oak told us about'? Do you know what town he was talking about?" What followed was a stream of variations of its own name as the Pokemon patiently explained the purpose behind Ash's meaning. Occasionally, Lacey would nod, and ask a few minor questions of her own, but for the most part, I sat back, watching the two communicate. Finally, Lacey nodded and looked at me. "Well, for the most part, it goes like this. Do you remember when Ash had said that yesterday, we were talking to the Professor? You know, when he asked us where we were?" "Yeah," I replied. "Well, from what Raichu understands, during that conversation, Oak had told Ash about some mysterious town that he had wanted them, or us I guess I should say, to investigate. He said a lot of mysterious pokemon had been seen there, yet there were no humans living around those areas for miles." "Is it a place from the TV show?" Lacey shook her head. "Nope, it's nothing I've ever heard of. It's some dark, forest area called 'Destiny town.'" I blinked. For a brief moment, I was reminded of my dream. The spooky one. Your destiny is darkness. I shook my head, trying to rid my mind of the memory. "You okay?" Lacey asked. "What? Oh, uh, yeah. I'm fine. But wait a sec," I said, thinking. "You said that nobody lived around there, right? So why is it called Destiny Town?" Lacey shrugged. "I guess that's what the people had eventually called it. Rumor has it that some people brave to explore around the place, and return years later, claiming their dreams had come true." "Their dreams?" "Yup." "Weird," I muttered, eyes fixed on the ground. "I know," Lacey agreed. "But hey, who knows? Maybe this Destiny Town has some answers for us." "Hope so."  
  
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" I nodded, smiling warmly up at Nurse Joy. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just couldn't sleep, that's all." I sat on the couch in the reception area of the Pokemon Center, my legs folded beneath me and my tail curled around my feet. The sun had already set by the time the four of us made it here, yet like I had said, I couldn't sleep. Too much was on my mind, but I didn't want the sweet, pink- haired Nurse Joy to worry herself too much by letting her know. Instead, I took another sip of my warm hot cocoa, and looked up at the nurse again. "Thanks again for the cocoa." Nurse Joy smiled. "No problem at all. It was my pleasure." With an uncertain expression, she glanced down the hallway. Reading her mind, I placed the cup back in my lap. "Really, Nurse Joy. I am fine. You should really go to bed, and not worry about me. I'll probably hit the sack in not too long, anyway." "Well," she began hesitantly, "if you're sure." "I am." "Okay. well, good night, then," she said softly, walking down the hallway towards where Ash, Misty, Pikachu, Raichu and Lacey slept, as well as the hidden Gatomon. After she had disappeared into the darkness of the corridors, I took another slow sip at my drink. Why can't I sleep? I wondered. Why is this all bugging me so much? Lacey's going through all the same stuff I am, yet she's in there, sleeping like a baby. Then again, I added, smiling to myself, it wouldn't exactly take much for her to fall dead asleep. "Why is all this happening to us?" I thought aloud. "I mean, it couldn't have possibly just been my wish- the one I made before all this happened. I don't have that kind of power. And even if I did, wouldn't all the other billions of wishes I've made come true, too?" I sighed, sinking back into the soft cushions and closing my eyes. "I wish I understood all this. I wish I knew why we're here, and why we were chosen out of all people. I wish. I wish." thump thump Instantly, my eyes snapped open, but I forced myself to remain calm, unmoving. Not for the first time, I silently praised myself for creating Prance with amplified feline abilities as my eyes swept the room, easily distinguishing the different objects in the darkness. Over there was the front desk, the one place one would normally see Nurse Joy in the daytime, along with her bubbly Chancey. And that shadow next to it was the videophone, the prime source of communication. And those three things over there were. moving? I rolled my eyes, calmly setting my mug down and pulling myself up to my feet. Guess it was only a matter of time, huh? With a stealth and silence I was just beginning to get used to, I crept towards the room I where I knew Lacey and the others slept, and just behind the corner I stopped, waiting. I knew they would be coming at any second. And, as I predicted, the same three shapes stole through the opposite hallway and snuck up to the door, chuckling crudely. Before one could reach for the doorknob, however, I stepped forward and flipped on the light. "Hello, again." Team Rocket froze, staring aghast at me. "H-hey wait a minute!" Jessie exclaimed. "What are you doing awake?" "Yeah," James added, "you're supposed to be asleep!" "Why? So you can sneak in and steal all of our pokemon?" I replied coolly. "Exactly!" James remarked. I rolled my eyes. Could he be any stupider? "Well, sorry to have disappointed you, but I'm awake. So," I added, whipping my hand to my skirt pocket where my poke-balls were hidden, "I guess you'll just have to deal with me!" Jessie grinned, reaching for her own poke-balls. "Fine, then. Have it your way. Once we get rid of you, it'll be a snap grabbing all the pokemon you twerps own." "Not to mention dat really rare one we saw earlier!" Meowth added maliciously. I raised an eyebrow. "What really rare one?" "That strange, white thing we saw you with the last time," Jessie replied. James nodded. "Yeah, even Meowth didn't know what it was, so it must be really really rare and, of course, really really valuable!" They probably mean Gatomon, I thought. "Well, too bad you won't get the opportunity to see how valuable she is!" "Hah, we'll just see!" Jessie said confidently. "Arbok! Go!" "You too, Victreebell!" James exclaimed. The same snake before was, this time, joined by a big, bright yellow eggplant-type thing with a large hole in its top as a mouth and vines sprouting from its sides. The instant it was released, however, it turned on its trainer and grabbed James, sticking him into his wide mouth. "Victreebell! Can't we do this somewhere else!?" "Typical," I muttered, pulling out the first poke-ball my fingers came into contact with and threw it in front of me. "Go!" Though on the outside, I seemed calm and collected, on the inside I was bubbling with excitement. I was actually releasing my own pokemon! This was so cool!!!! And, to my delight, the pokemon that emerged from the ball was exactly what I would have hoped it to be- an adorable orange puppy with white tufts of fur sprouting from its tail, chest, and the top of its head and black stripes running across its back. "Hah! You think we're afraid of that puny little Growlithe?" Jessie exclaimed. "Uh, Jessie?" James whispered. "If Growlithe's so puny, then why do we keep on getting beat by it?" A sweatdrop rolled down the side of her head as she muttered, "James, just focus on the battle, okay?" "Oh, okay. Well, then," he added vigorously, "go Victreebell! Vine whip, now!" I grinned, feeling the excitement within me rise. Oh, yeah, I was so ready for this! "Growlithe! Dodge it!" I commanded. With ease, the puppy pokemon jumped out of the way, landing in a perfect attacking position. "Grr, go get that Growlithe, Arbok!" Jessie ordered. With a hiss, the large snake began rapidly slithering forward. Yeah, right. I've seen this all time after time on TV before. Like this would actually work! "Growlithe, use take down!" Crouching low, Growlithe leapt forward with blinding speed, lowering his head in preparation for the collision. Upon impact, Arbok's eyes widened as it flew backward, crashing into the wall behind it. "Arbok! Get up!" Jessie screamed angrily. "You're not supposed to lose!" "I would have thought by now you would have been used to it," I said, smirking. Turning back to my pokemon, I commanded, "Kay, Growlithe. Time for a flamethrower!" With a brief nod, Growlithe turned to the vulnerable grass-type pokemon (which, by the way, was weak against fire attacks) and opened his mouth, spewering a stream of fire towards Victreebell. When the flames receded, all that was left of the pokemon was a yellow and black lump. "No! Victreebell!" James cried, holding out his poke-ball so that the pokemon could return. Holding out her own, Jessie growled, "Don't think you've won anything, yet, twerp!" "Oh, haven't I?" I replied confidently. "I'm sorry, I don't think Growlithe believes you. Do you believe them, Growlithe?" I asked, turning to my adorable pokemon. The puppy crouched lower, growling ferociously at the three. Team Rocket's faces paled, and instantly, they took off towards the back entrance where they had originally entered. "F-forget it!" James whined. "We're outta here!" "Yeah, we'll come back for that rare pokemon later!" Jessie added, darting ahead of her partners. "See you's guys later!" Meowth hollered. As soon as they had disappeared, Growlithe stopped growling and began trotting towards me, sitting faithfully at my feet. Kneeling, I hugged him fiercely, rubbing his head and scratching behind his ears. "Aw, Growlithe, you're the absolute best! You put that nasty Team Rocket in their place. They won't mess with us, again, huh?" Growlithe barked happily, gently licking me in the face. I giggled. "Hey, stop that, silly!" "Heath- uh, I mean, Prance!" The two of us looked up, startled. Lacey, Ash, and Misty, along with their respective pokemon, each burst out of the room, spilling out into the hallway with stunned expressions on their faces. "What's going on?" Ash asked. "It sounded like there was a battle going on in here!" "And it looks like it, too," Misty added, pointing to the charred outline of Victreebell's shape. Lacey nodded, looking down at my Growlithe. I laughed, rubbing the back of my head. "Well, I heard Team Rocket sneaking around, so I just. took care of it." "Team Rocket?" Ash exclaimed. "Here?" Misty sighed. "Sounds like they were up to their no good tricks again." Lacey nodded, again, and yawned, rubbing her eyes. "Yeah, well, that's nice. So, Team Rocket, as usual, tried to steal our Pokemon and failed. Can we go back to bed, now?" I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, and as usual, all you can think of is your stomach and your pillow." Lacey gave me a look that I could only guess was her sleepy attempt at a glare before disappearing once again into the bedroom. Ash and Misty looked at me. "What do you mean?" "Growlithe, return," I said calmly, allowing the puppy to return to its poke-ball. Walking towards the door, I merely said, "Nothing. Kyra's right- let's go to sleep." Ignoring their puzzled expressions, I walked past them, preparing to enter the room when I saw it. Only for a brief moment did I see it, however. So brief, I thought I had imagined it. "Prance?" Misty asked, placing her hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?" I blinked, shaking my head and smiling. "Sure. I just thought I saw a shadow, that's all. " With a carefree shrug, I walked into the bedroom, not giving the shadow another thought. 


	6. A New Problem?

Chapter 4: Here we go again!  
  
W hat? Darkness. Complete Darkness. Empty of all light. Nothing. What ... is this? It was strange. It was as if I were dreaming, but almost not dreaming. Like I can feel myself somewhere, but I can't feel anything at all. It's hard to explain, but somehow, I just knew I was ... Suddenly, mindlessly, I found myself staring down. Or was it really me? No, it wasn't. It was more like I was somewhere else, kinda watching everything from a distance, like on TV or something. But I wasn't the one with the remote. Below my feet, I saw my reflection- I must have been standing on a mirror or something. It was the 'Prance' me, though, not the real me. I just stood there, staring at my reflection, looking lost and confused. I don't get it. Where am I? What is this all? Don't you know? No. Do you? Yes. What is it? It is . your destiny. My destiny? I pulled my head up slowly and looked around, partly to find a face behind the voice, and partly to figure out what part of my destiny this all was. This is . my destiny? Yes. But, I don't understand. Your destiny is darkness. Darkness? Yes. No. It can't be. But it is. No.  
  
"Heather?" I felt myself being shaken back and forth, but my mind refused to return to consciousness. "Heather, get up!" Finally giving in, I slowly opened one eye. "Kyra?" "Well, sort of, yeah. Still Kyra, anyway," she replied. "But I don't get how." "How what?" "Look around and you'll see what I mean." Now sort of apprehensive, I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up, yawning. Scratching lazily behind my right ear, I opened my eyes to a big surprise. "M-my room!?!" "Told ya." No kidding, I thought to myself as I looked around, jaw dropped. Everything was exactly the same as how I left it- the bed was tasseled from me laying on it, my backpack was still slumped on the ground by my desk, my stuffed german Sheppard and old raccoon were both laying on my bed against the wall. I looked around, awestruck. "Wait a second, how is this possible? We're back in my room, but we're both still . well, animated!" "Yeah, and uh . that's not the only thing wrong with this picture." Lacey added, pointing at something behind me. Not wanting to look, I forced myself to turn. "So this is your world? It sure is really weird!" "Gatomon! What're you doing here!?" She rolled her eyes, crossed her paws, and gave me one of those 'you've- gotta-be- kidding-me' looks. "You think I actually want to be here!?" she spat. "I fall asleep next to Seadramon's Lake, and next thing I know, I'm apparently tagging along side you two to this place!" I sighed, suddenly feeling totally exhausted. "So what do we do, now?" Lacey asked, looking at me. Shrugging lazily, I stood up, and began walking around, twirling my tail between my fingers. "I don't know. I mean, we could try going outside and see if anyone's around, or maybe we could call someone, or something." "Are you kidding!?" Gatomon exclaimed. "Think about it- if you two were completely surprised by the whole 'wish' thing, what makes you think any of your other humans will understand?" "She's right," Lacey agreed, nodding. "No one would believe us if we tried to tell them, and they'd probably drop in a dead faint and call themselves crazy if we showed up in person." "Well, what else can we do?" I asked, starting to feel desperate as I walked to the door. "Why don't we just think this over some more?" Lacey suggested. "I'm sure we'll think of something." "Including how to get me back home?" Gatomon asked. "Of course," I replied. "I'm going into the bathroom to wash my face. Maybe if we're lucky, it'll all just wash off!" I added, smiling grimly. "Who knows?" Knowing very well it wouldn't, I reached my hand forward anyway. "Ouch!" "What's the matter?" Lacey asked. I rubbed my fingers gingerly. "The doorknob just shocked me!" "Static electricity- nothing wrong with that," Lacey said, returning to her thoughts. "Yeah, I guess not, " I replied, although for some strange reason, a strange, lurking feeling told me otherwise. Trying to ignore it, I reached out again. This time, no shock. Of course not. There's nothing wrong with it. I must be losing it- all this animated stuff is infecting my head, I chided myself as I opened the door. I groaned. "Oh man, this cannot be happening!" "What is it?" Lacey asked, joining me. "What's the ." She no longer had a need to continue as we both stared out at the vast plains of green grass before us. Animated green grass, might I add. "Sure, why not?" I exclaimed hysterically. "First, I end up turning us into cartoons in the Digimon series. Why wouldn't a rippling field of cartoon grass be where my bathroom was?" "What next?" Lacey asked, still taken back, looking back and forth between my normal, non-cartoon room and the huge expanse before her. I sighed, thinking over it all in my head. "Well, there's no point in staying in my room. We might as well find out where we are." "Good idea. I mean, for all we know, we could be in some unexplored area of the Digital World." "This isn't the Digital World." Startled, both Lacey and me turned to face Gatomon who was staring absentmindedly out at the scenery. "How do you know?" I asked. Gatomon glanced up at Lacey briefly before returning her gaze to the field. "I traveled all over the Digital World with Kyra, and I've never seen anything like this before." "Do you think we could be in the real world?" Lacey asked. "Where else could we be if we weren't in the Digital World?" she replied. "Well, Kyra's the Digital Guardian, right?" Lacey said. "Maybe somehow or other, I got us to some other dimension." While the two of them talked, I thought. Out of nowhere, a bizarre theory came to mind, and I instantly dismissed it. But the more I tried to think, the more the idea repeated itself over and over in my mind. "Heather?" I scrunched my brow, playing with the idea of saying my opinion aloud or keeping it to myself. Finally, I looked over at Lacey. "What is it?" she asked. "Well, I kind of have an idea, and it may be totally crazy, but-" Lacey smiled. "Are you kidding? Look at us- we're cartoons! I don't think we're allowed to accept any idea that's below crazy!" If you say so.. "Even if I were to say something like maybe we weren't even in the Digimon world anymore?" She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Slowly closing it again, she furrowed her brows, staring blankly at my face while her mind whirled. While she was busy thinking, I glanced down at Gatomon. "Are you positive this is nowhere in the Digital World?" I asked again. Her eyes narrowed to bare slits, her expression obvious. "Okay, okay, sorry I asked!" I muttered, turning back to Lacey. "Well, what do you think?" "Well," she began, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "it does make sense, doesn't it? But," she added, looking up at me warily, "if it is true, and we are someplace else, then where are we?" I shrugged. Gatomon rolled her eyes and started walking forward. "Hey, where are you going?" Lacey asked. Gatomon looked back at the two of us, an impatient look on her feline face. "What do you think? If you want to find out where you are, than you can come with me, but if all you're gonna do is sit there and think about things, then I'm leaving." Lacey blinked, briefly exchanging surprised looks with me. Without a moment's hesitation, we both walked towards her, occasionally glancing back at the random open door in the middle of the field, looking as if it had always been there. After Gatomon had turned back around, I leaned over towards Lacey and whispered, "Man, since when was Gatomon such a big-" I cut my sentence short. Gatomon was staring straight at me with a wicked sneer. For a brief moment, I realized, I forgot how well her big ears had worked. Afterall, she was a cat, too. If anything, I should know better than anyone exactly how well they worked. Well, after that incident, we pretty much kept walking. And walking. And walking. Oh, yeah. And after that .. big surprise, we did some more walking! I swear, if I had paws, they'd be on fire! "Ugh, can't we sit and take a rest!" I moaned, sinking to the ground. "We've been walking for at least two hours, probably three!" Gatomon rolled her eyes and crossed her paws. "Weakling" was the word I thought I heard her mutter under her breath. However, being so tired, I didn't even have the strength to argue back. Sighing, Lacey nodded. "I agree, I'm kinda tired, myself. Afterall, its not like we're in any supreme hurry, right? A little break won't kill anybody." As she said this, she leaned down and sat on the ground. "Ouch!" I looked up at her, startled. "What's the matter?" "Ugh, I sat on something .. hey, I think there's something in my pocket!" she exclaimed, running her fingers over the small lumps at her side. "Was it there before?" "No .. at least, I'm pretty sure it wasn't." I rolled my eyes. Typical Lacey. "Well, what is it?" Curiously, she reached in her pocket and pulled out several small objects. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. How many more surprises can I get in one day? "If those are what I think they are, then-" "-we don't need to worry about where we are anymore." I nodded, unable to take my eyes off the six little balls sitting on her palm. A little bigger than marbles, they appeared to be split in half, one side colored white, the other red. On each one, a small, silver button sat in the center, directly in the middle of the two colors. Gatomon looked back and forth between me and Lacey, then finally down at the balls. "What are they?" "Poke-balls," we answered in unison. Obviously not any less confused, she tried a different question. "Okay, then what are poke-balls?" Ignoring her question, I glanced at Lacey. "Do you think there's anything in them?" "Well," she began nervously, "if this is my version of Pokemon, with Kyra in it that is, then I'm willing to bet there is." I stared at her skeptically. "Wait a minute, you mean you put Kyra in Pokemon, too?" Lacey looked away, trying to hide the red creeping on her cheeks. But, despite her efforts, I could see them plainly. She couldn't hide it from me if she tried. I sighed, shaking my head. "Fine, forget it for now. But what kind of Pokemon do you have?" I added, sounding more interested. Lacey brightened. "Lots. Almost all of them, really." "Figures." I replied, smirking. Lacey smiled, rubbing her head. "Yeah, well. oh, and hey," she added, visibly perking up, "if I'm the Kyra from Pokemon, then that means I can talk to them!" I stared at her in disbelief. "What!? You mean you can talk to Pokemon!?" "Yup!" "Oh brother," I muttered, glancing at her childish expression. "Aww, come on. Don't be mad! I wanna see what's inside!" Eagerness overcoming annoyance, I leaned forward anxiously as Lacey took one of the small poke-balls and pressed the button. Instantly, the poke- ball turned into a sphere of pure radiance and a shaft of light appeared at my feet. Though I had my hand covering my eyes due to the intensity of the light, I could barely make out the outline of something appearing from the shaft. As the light diminished, I slowly removed my hand. The thing that came out of the poke-ball was gone? However, before I could even say, "huh?" I heard Lacey's giggle and her exclaim, "Raichu!" Spinning around, I saw the pokemon seated on her shoulder, licking her cheek affectionately, which resulted in Lacey squealing even more. The creature itself looked kind of like a golden brown mouse the size of a soccer ball with long, thin rabbit ears that curved to a fine point and little yellow circles on its cheeks. Its tail was similar to Gatomon's in that it was long and thin until the end where a sharp, yellow lightning bolt sat, about the size of its head. This was Lacey's Raichu. Apparently. "That's a Raichu?" I said curiously, tilting my head to one side in fascination. "Aren't they supposed to be bigger?" Lacey paused from her playful activities to look up at me. "Well, yeah, but when I first thought of all this, I wanted a Raichu, but not big and fat like normal ones. So, I made this one smaller with a longer tail so it could run faster than even a regular Pikachu, and voila! The birth of Raichu!" I smirked. "You always had a need for speed, didn't you?" "Yup!" "Figures. So what else ya got?" Well, after a few minutes of experimenting, me and Gatomon were introduced to Lacey's other pokemon- a black, dog-like thing with a thin, devil tail and bones strapped around its back and head called Houndoom, a beautiful blue water serpent with big black eyes and a round light blue ball on its tail known as Dragonair, a huge praying mantis type pokemon called Scyther, a giant bird called Pigeot, and finally a creepy ghost thing, a Gengar. "Not bad," I admitted, after she had returned all but Raichu to their poke- balls. "Although personally, I wouldn't have chosen something as freaky looking as Gengar, it certainly isn't a bad line up. I like the Dragonair." Lacey grinned. "I thought you would." With a sigh, I leaned back and glanced at her. "Kay, we know where we are. What now?" Lacey shrugged, looking back and forth between Gatomon, Raichu and me. "I don't know, what do you think we should do?" "I know what you should do." Instantly, the three of us were on our feet, looking around wildly. "Who's there?" "Where is it coming from?" "What's going on?" A second voice, low and somewhat squeaky, laughed. "I know what you should do, too!" I spun around, searching desperately for the source of the voice. "Where are you!?" Finally, a third voice spoke out with a thick, kind of New Yorker accent. "So, shall we tell dem?" "Heather, do you see them?" Lacey asked. "Of course not!" I screamed. "You think if I did, I'd still be looking around like an idiot!?" "I think. you should prepare for trouble." Simultaneously, Lacey and I stopped and stared at each other, realization washing over us. Raichu, sitting on her shoulder, seemed to have rolled its eyes. Gatomon, completely oblivious to this all, stood defensively between us, eyes whirling around. "Perhaps, you might want to make that double." "You've got to be kidding me!" Lacey exclaimed, looking at her Pokemon exasperatingly. "Oh, no, not them!" I muttered, smacking my palm against my forehead. Gatomon looked back and forth between the two of us, the hair on the back of her neck rising in slow anger. "What the heck are you talking about?" From out of nowhere, three shadows appeared on the surface of a low-lying branch on a nearby tree. "To protect the world from devastation!" "To unite all people within our nation!" "Here we go again," I muttered, lowering myself to the ground. Following suit, Lacey and Gatomon sat on either side of me, the latter still completely confused. "To denounce the evils of truth and love!" "To extend our reach from the stars above!" Lacey nudged me with her elbow, grinning childishly. "Gee, too bad we didn't bring any popcorn!" "Or a pillow," I added, using my hand to cover my gaping mouth as I yawned. "This looks like this might take a while." "Rai-ai chuu!!" replied the pokemon from her shoulder. Lacey giggled, turning to me. "Heh heh, it said, 'Unfortunately, it always does!'" Nodding my agreement, we all turned our attention back to the three figures just now emerging from the shadows. "Jessie!" cried a tall, blue-eyed woman with fuchsia-pink colored hair that stuck straight out behind her. Her companion, a lanky, green-eyed guy with a big mouth and short, kinda spiky blue hair, stepped out beside her, adding enthusiastically, "James!" "Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!" "Surrender now, or prepare to fight, fight, fight!" Suddenly, the third member of their party appeared, a loud mouth cat-like pokemon with a curly, brown tail and a gold coin plastered on its forehead, striking a frightening pose in front of its two human friends, crying triumphantly, "Mee-owth, that's right!" "Hey, you three done, yet?" I called, unable to resist a second yawn. "We've kind of got things to do, today, you know?" The woman, Jessie, glared at us, a gigantic vein popping out through her bright hair (anime terminology- "popping vein" is usually used when someone is dramatically pissed or ticked off). "You just shut up you snot-nosed, cat-eared little twerp! You have absolutely no idea how hard it is to repeat the Team Rocket motto time and time again, especially when little brats like you keep on picking on us about it!" "Yeah!" piped up James defensively. "Not to mention the difficulties in saying our motto with pride after all those humiliating defeats!" "You idiot!" Jessie screamed, turning on her own team member. "You're supposed to be encouraging Team Rocket efforts, not putting them down!" And with that, she punched him in the face, causing him to fly backward and off the branch with a bright red handprint on his face. From within the bushes of his landing was heard the soft, "Sorry, Jessie." Jessie, ignoring him, folded her arms and looked back at us. "Ugh, pay no attention to him. Where were we?" I raised my eyebrows, exchanging blank expressions with Lacey. "I know," the other pokemon spoke up, grinning evilly. "We was just at the pawt where we snatch up the twoirps pokemon!" Jessie smiled, regaining her confident position. "Oh yeah, that's right. So, you can either hand 'em over, nice and easy, or we can fight for it. Your choice." I shrugged indifferently. "Doesn't matter to me. Ask her," I said, jerking my thumb at Lacey. "She's the one with the pokemon, not me." Jessie paused, blinking. "Wait a minute, what happened to your pokemon?" "Like I said, I don't have any." "Yes you do," Jessie insisted, looking up in thought as she counted on her fingers. "Let's see, you've got Vulpix, Ninetales, Houndour, Growlithe, Arcanine and. and. um, Meowth, what else did she have? I know it was another fire-type." "A Charizard," the cat replied, stroking his tail tenderly. "I remember cause a dat time it toasted my tail." "Oh yeah, that's right. So you see," Jessie announced proudly, "you can't fool us. You do have pokemon! So hand 'em over!" Startled, I glanced at Lacey. Reading my expression, she shrugged her shoulders. "Honest, I don't know a thing about this! I never said a thing about you!" A bewildered look crossed my face as I looked down at the ground. "Well, then, how did I-" "Ahem!" Jessie said impatiently. "Enough with your problems. Now it's time to worry about ours! We want your pokemon, and we want them now! Arbok!" Holding out a poke-ball of her own, she released a gigantic purple cobra with gold and black designs on its hood. It hissed viciously in our direction, throwing us venomous glances. "You too, Weezing!" James shouted from the bushes, releasing his own pokemon, a strange-looking pair of gas balls with eyes and toxic symbols on their centers. Throwing an affirmative glance towards Lacey, I watched as she nodded and turned to Raichu, opening her mouth to say something when- "Thunderbolt!" From behind us, a streak of yellow lightning whizzed through the air, striking the group of pokemon and humans in front of us. And of course, like in classic anime style, a bright light surrounded them, their eyes bulging and their hair dramatically skewering the air as thousands of watts of electricity charged through them. Seconds later, a massive explosion wafted clouds of dust in our eyes, and before we knew it, Team Rocket was flying in the air, muttering something on the way up. However, despite their distance, one phrase was clearly shouted out. "Team Rocket is blasting off aga-ain!" I blinked, mouth gaping, totally confused, as were Lacey and Gatomon. "Um. okay. what just happened?" "You're asking me?" Gatomon snapped. "Uh, hey guys?" We turned to Lacey, startled at her shocked expression. "What?" we said in unison. Eyes wide, she merely pointed at something behind us, mumbling, "Gee, think. We're in Pokemon, and Team Rocket was just blasted out of the sky by a thunderbolt. Any ideas come to mind?" I rolled my eyes at her dramatics, turning to where she pointed. "Don't worry, I think I can guess." "Prance! Kyra! Are you guys okay?" Again, certainly not for the first or last time today, I spun around to find a defensive Lacey looking at me confused. "I swear, I have no idea how they know you!" Before I could respond, three figures emerged from the woods. The first was a boy of about ten or eleven years with thick, black hair hidden underneath a red and white baseball cap. A black t-shirt was covered by a blue and white jacket and he wore loose blue jeans and red sneakers. Ash ran forward, watching the spot where Team Rocket had flew off. His companion, a girl about the same age, ran forward towards us. Her bright red-orange hair was tied back in a ponytail at the side of her head, and her green eyes overflowed with concern. She wore a short, bright yellow shirt with red straps running over her shoulders to her light blue jean shorts. In her arms was what looked like half an eggshell with brightly colored geometric designs painted on it. It's upper half was broken, however, and sprouted from the inside was something resembling a pale yellow crown with two eyes and a bubbly smile. Seeing that we were okay, Misty sighed, smiling, while Togepi trilled joyously. The third newcomer was another pokemon, slightly resembling Raichu, but different. Its mouse body was pure yellow, with black-tipped rabbit ears and a thunder shaped tail. Bright red circles on its cheeks replaced the yellow ones on Raichu's, and its black eyes shined curiously. "You guys okay?" Misty asked, extended her hand towards me. Tentatively, I took it and pulled myself up, dusting my skirt off with my hands and tail. "Um, thanks. Misty." Misty grinned. "Don't mention it." Ash rejoined us, Pikachu hopping to his shoulder as he helped Lacey up. "Well, Team Rocket's gone. For now, anyway." "Yeah," Misty sighed, "those three always find some way to come back and bug us." "Yeah," I agreed, "we kinda noticed." "So where were you guys?" Ash asked, turning to Lacey. "Last time we saw you guys, we were at the Pokemon Center back at the last town, talking to Professor Oak. Next thing we knew, we woke up this morning and you guys were gone!" "Uh. well, we. um," Lacey stammered, glancing at me for help. "Well, Prance wants to tell you, don't you, Prance?" I could feel the sweatdrop sliding down my head as I glared at Lacey, my eyebrow raised. "Oh, I do, do I?" I replied, my voice low and vicious. Lacey quickly picked up my negative vibe, smiling nervously with a typical anime expression as she backed up. Ignoring her, I turned to Misty and Ash, who were watching me curiously. Scratching my head, I looked up at the sky, thinking. "Well. you see, we left early this morning because." Out of the corner of my mind, I saw Lacey muttering something to Raichu, who exchanged a few words with its trainer as well. Suddenly, she spoke up. "Sorry about that," she replied, rubbing the back of her head. "See, this morning, Prance saw a wild pokemon, a fire-type, and of course, she couldn't resist the chance to go capture it. Since it was so early in the morning, and neither of us wanted to wake you, we left, planning to come back before you woke up. But as we were on our way back, we ran into Team Rocket, and. well, you pretty much know the rest." For a brief moment, I stared dumbly at Lacey, wondering where in the heck she thought up something like that. But I didn't have time to complete that thought for Misty smiled and Ash laughed, glancing at Pikachu. "Well, I'm just glad we got here in time to help out." "Not like we couldn't take care of 'em," I replied confident, planning to ask Lacey about her explanation later. "Not without these, you don't," Misty replied, pulling out something from the green backpack she wore. Placing it in my hand, I looked down at my palm and gasped. Six tiny poke- balls sat comfortably in my hand. For a brief moment, Misty looked at me strangely, probably questioning my amazed expression. But before she could comment on it, Lacey stepped forward, wrapping her arm around Misty's shoulders. "Hah, you know Prance, so excited to catch a new fire-type pokemon, she completely forgot to bring her own. Sound like anyone we know?" she added, glancing in Ash's direction. He paused before stepping forward, flushing angrily. "Hey! Now what do you mean by that!?" Misty looked back at him and smirked. "Oh nothing, Ash. She's just saying that you tend to have a habit of jumping into stuff before you even think about it." "I do not!" he protested. "I think about stuff all the time!" Misty, Lacey and I exchanged glances, rolling our eyes amusingly. From his shoulder, Pikachu cried, "Pi-ka pi-ka chuuu!!" Lacey laughed. "It seems Pikachu agrees with us." "Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed, looking at Pikachu, shocked. "You don't really think so, do you?" Pikachu uttered an apologetic, "Pi-ka piii." The three of us laughed as Ash sank to the ground, digging his hands in his hair. As I looked around, marveling once again at who and where I was, I suddenly noticed somebody was missing. "Kyra!" I hissed, flexing my index finger so that she could come closer to me. Doing so, I leaned forward and whispered, "Where's Gatomon?" Lacey paused, blinking. "Wow, I don't really know." Looking around, Lacey added, "The last time I saw her was back when Team Rocket was." Suddenly, we both gasped, heads spinning around to face each other. I spoke first. "You don't think she could have been-" "-blasted away with Team Rocket?" Lacey finished. "I really hope not." "Psst!" Simultaneously, we looked up, recognizing the voice instantly. "Gatomon?" we said together. "Shh!" she hissed from behind us. Spinning around, we saw her two purple tufted ears sticking out from behind a bush. Glancing back to make sure Misty and Ash were still distracted by their own affairs, I darted into the bushes, Lacey following behind. "What happened to you?" was the first question Lacey sputtered. "We thought you were blown away with Team Rocket." Gatomon raised an eyebrow. "You think I was stupid enough to get caught up with that bunch of losers?" Lacey rubbed the back of her head, light pink appearing on her cheeks. "Well, . no, not exactly." "Look we were just worried about you," I said defensively. "What happened, anyway?" Gatomon snorted, folding her arms. "Duh, I snuck back here while you guys were all yapping away. I've been here, waiting for one of you to notice I was gone while you were playing around with those fools." I clenched my fists at my sides. "You know, you've got a real attitude problem. Ever since the beginning, you've always had a problem with everything and everyone. How come I never remembered you having this much of an attitude before." "Yeah? Well, sometimes things tend to happen when you begin to lose faith in everything you've know to be true your entire life!" she spat furiously. "Hey, both of you calm down!" Lacey interrupted, stepping in between the two of us. "We don't need to be fighting, especially right now." "Whatever," Gatomon muttered. "Same here," I added. "Anyway, exactly what is it we're supposed to be doing right now?" Lacey shrugged. "I don't really know. I guess first of all, we figure out who we are in here and why you're included in it," she began, pointing at me. "Since this whole storyline is wacky, if we find out why, maybe we can figure out how to get out of here." "Sounds like a good enough plan to me," I replied, shrugging indifferently. With a grin, I added, "Actually, sounds like a great plan. Just play along with the story, right? I think I can do that." Lacey smirked. "You just wanna try out your fire pokemon." "So?" I replied innocently. Rolling her eyes, Lacey turned back to Gatomon.  
  
"You had better stay close but out of sight, you know?" Gatomon rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know. By now, I'm pretty much used to it." "Oh yeah, huh?" Lacey replied, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "You did have to do a lot of hiding away whenever Kyra went to the Real world with everybody else, huh?" Gatomon threw Lacey an intensely hateful look. She took the hint. "Ugh, never mind. Anyway, since you're so familiar with this, I take it you know what to do," Lacey said, pulling her backpack to her front and pointing to the open end. Rolling her eyes again, Gatomon uncrossed her arms and jumped inside. Lacey waited until she made herself comfortable before pulling at the zip tap, leaving a small pocket open for her to breathe from. Swinging the backpack over her shoulder, Lacey suddenly noticed Raichu sitting next to her, staring at her curiously. Lacey sighed. "Don't worry. I promise I'll explain it all later." "Good luck," Gatomon muttered from inside her backpack. Ignoring her, the two of us stood up, walking out from our secured spot. "There you are," Misty said. "For a moment we thought we had lost you again." "Sorry about that," I replied. "Well, anyway," Ash said, calling Pikachu to his shoulder, "we had better get going. We have a long way ahead of 


	7. A New Threat

Chapter 7: A new threat  
  
"H ey, Kay?" "Yeah?" I paused before answering, staring up at the shadows on the canopy. "Well. I've been thinking about something." Kyra paused. "Did you hurt yourself?" I smiled in spite of myself. "You're one to talk." "Sorry. Couldn't resist." "Yeah right. Anyway, I've been kinda thinking about something. About how we've been traveling from world to world." "Yeah?" "Have you ever noticed how and when it happens?" "No, not really." "I mean, think about it. In the Digital world, it happened after we went to sleep, and we ended up waking in my room, but still in our animated forms. Then, it happened again after we fell asleep, this time appearing in Mr. Carr's class. And both times we left our world through a door." "So. what you're saying is, we pretty much switch worlds at the end of each day." "Yeah." "And we sort of transition to the next world through our own." "Right." "I guess you're right. I never thought about it before, but you're right. But then again, I guess that means that after we fall asleep here, we'll wake up back in our world, huh?" "I think so. That's how it's worked before." "Yeah, I guess," Kyra whispered, drifting into thoughtful silence. I, too, was somewhat lost in thought, thinking about all that we had learned today. Everything about Deesum and Rastal. Sirius. All that Gatomon had said. I guess it all had a pretty big impact on me. But, I have to admit, I think I took it all pretty well. Thanks to Gatomon's rousing 'pep- talk', both me and Lacey. excuse me, Kyra (to get used to ourselves, we started calling each other by our new names), accepted our role pretty easily. Maybe too easily, I suppose. But, in time, I'll get used to the idea. After our talk, we had gone to join Goku and the others. heh, well, me and Gatomon did. Kyra kind of sauntered off back in the direction Trunks was. Thinking this, I smirked, and asked dryly, "Oh, and by the way, where exactly were you after we had our talk? I was looking for you." My grin grew as I listened to the silence that followed, Kyra's face no doubt turning bright red. "N-nowhere." "Oh really? I had asked Goku, and he simply laughed, saying you had probably gone off with Trunks somewhere." "W- what would make him t-think that?" she stammered. "Oh, stop playing around, I know all about you two. How Trunks fell in love with you during his future, and did it all over again when he came back here to fight the androids. Goku and Gohan told me everything." Again, another satisfactory silence. "S-so?" "So. what were you two really doing?" I coaxed. "Just talking, that's all," she said hurriedly. "He just asked me a lot of questions about you, and everybody, like Goku, and Gohan, and his dad. grr," she likes Vegeta just about as much as she likes Jason, in case you couldn't tell, "oh, um, and Goten, and his younger self, and. well, everybody." "Really? That was all you did?" I asked suspiciously. This time, Kyra didn't even pause before saying quickly, "Good night, Prance. See you in the morning. uh, in our world, I guess." I smiled wryly. "Good night, Kay."  
  
Darkness. Again. Just like before. I stood in the same, pitch-blackness as before, staring down at my reflection. It was distorted for some reason, as if ripples were running along its surface. I looked at my face, studying my blank, emotionless expression. Like I were not really there. Like I was a robot, or a zombie, or something. It is. your destiny. This darkness? This distortion? Yes. No, it can't be. But it is. No it's not. Not anymore. Yes it is. No! I'm going to fight it, now. I'm not going to let this become my destiny! You cannot fight it. You cannot fight fate. Yes I can! I'm going to win. We're going to win. Me and Kyra. You cannot win alone. But I'm not alone! I have Kyra with me, and Gatomon! You are alone. All by yourself, disconnected from everyone. No I'm not! You are alone. No! Alone.  
  
"No!" I screamed, sitting up. Instantly, I regretted it as sunlight poured into my face. I shut my eyes, collapsing back down. "Stupid dream," I muttered. "You awake?" I opened my eyes and turned my head. I saw a large, dark green couch with black and wine colored pillows scattered over and around it. A brown and white blanket lay strewn across it, as if someone previously laying under it had moved. Looking down at myself, I saw I was also lying on a smaller couch with a thin, black blanket covering me. Sighing, I allowed my head to sink back into the velvet purple pillow. So I was right, afterall. This was the downstairs den of Kyra's. well, Lacey's, house. "Kay?" I called out softly. Simultaneously, Kyra's red head and blue- green eyes stuck out from around the wall beside me, smiling. "Oh, so you are awake." "What are you doing?" I muttered, stretching lazily. "Finding something to eat. Check it out," she added excitedly; disappearing again, "Mom bought those little Swiss chocolate rolls. I just love these!" "Pig," I murmured, swinging my legs around the side of the couch and pushing myself up. Walking into the kitchen, I noticed the time of 6:45 that the digital clock read from the cable box beneath her huge screen TV and moaned, settling myself into one of the black leather chairs situated at the bar. "How in the world you wake up so early, I will never know," I muttered, yawning. Kyra shrugged. "Me neither. I guess I'm just a morning person." "Yeah, whatever. So, where is everybody?" I asked. "Dunno. I checked my cell phone upstairs and it said it was Saturday, so I guess they went out garage-sale shopping." "This early?" "According to my mom, this is the best time to go." "Whatever," I groaned, still not fully awake. "Do you have anything that'll wake me up?" "I'll get you some water." "Thanks," was all I said as I laid my head down on the cold granite counter. "Where's Gatomon?" "Upstairs with Kira," she replied. Kira is the family's dog, an adorable, idiotic, cute, annoying, lovable little black-and-white rat terrier with a bladder control problem and the idea that everyone in the world should love and worship her. "Kira, even though she's been scratched and beat up by her, can't stop trying to sniff and inspect her." I chuckled. "Hah, dumb mutt. Sounds like her." "Yeah, really," Kyra agreed as she pushed a tall glass of ice water at me. Grabbing it, I gulped it down slowly to avoid brain freeze. "Oh, and guess what?" Kyra exclaimed. "What?" "You know how Gatomon said we should try to develop our powers and all that?" "Yeah." "Well," she began, leaning her elbows against the counter, "I tried to open my wings again this morning, before you woke up." "And?" I asked, gaining interest. "Well, I wasn't able to push them out all the way, but I did get a few feathers out of one." "A few feathers?" "Hey, every big accomplishment needs to have a start somewhere, doesn't it?" she replied, grinning. "Yeah, I guess so," I muttered, drinking the last of my water. "Kyra! Prance!" My cup dropped to the floor as the two of us rushed back into the den and to the entrance, turning right up the stairs and entering the first set of double doors. Inside, Gatomon on the huge king-sized waterbed, staring at the TV screen, not even paying attention to the small dog at least half her size barking at and pawing her tail. "What is it?" I asked. "Look," was all she said, raising her paw to point at the screen. Exchanging confused looks with each other, we walked inside and sat on either side of the digimon, Kyra grabbing Kira away from Gatomon's tail and forcing her to lie down on her lap. Explosions dominated the screen. Animated ones, that is. People and animals were dying left and right. The ground was littered with bodies drenched in blood. Scenes flashed back and forth between pale faces, burning buildings and more destruction. I gasped. Kyra covered her mouth with her hand, her fingers trembling. "T-that's one of the cities from Goku's world," she whispered hoarsely. "It must be-" "Rastal and Deesum, no doubt," I choked, "if not Sirius, too. What is all this?" Gatomon shook her head. "I don't know. I was just in here with the dog when next thing I knew, the television automatically turned on and I saw this." "We have to do something," Kyra said softly, "but what? We don't have near the power necessary to even pull a hair off their tails, much less do any damage." "Then why don't we go and find ourselves some of that power?" I suggested determinedly, feeling the blood within me boil. Kyra looked at me, studying me for a moment before smiling and nodding. "Yeah. Let's go." Before even I knew what I was doing, I found myself racing downstairs with Kyra right behind me. As she passed by, Gatomon hopped onto her shoulder while Kira began barking excitedly all the way down the stairs. Stupid mutt. Leaping down the last few stairs, I spun to my right and ran forward, reaching out my hand to grab the front door handle. "Prance, wait!" I slid to a stop just as I was about to turn the handle and spun around angrily. "What!? Why'd you make me stop? I was on a role!" A sweatdrop rolled down Kyra's face as she replied softly, "Don't you think it might be a good idea to look before you leap? Remember what happened last time?" A brief recollection of my small body falling thousands and thousands of feet in the air sent ripples along my fur as I gulped and smiled nervously, rubbing the back of my head. "O-oh, yeah. I guess that would be a good idea, huh?" "Not that I wanted to interrupt your superhero style dash for the front door or anything, but if I were you, I wouldn't depend too heavily on my wings opening a second time if you know what I mean." Nodding in agreement, I twirled back around and focused my attention on the doorknob, turning it slowly and gently pulling the door back. With eager and at the same time cautious curiosity, Kyra, Gatomon and myself stuck our heads around the sides of the door. Phew. It was just a street. No miles of concentrated air molecules to fall through or anything. Just a simple, animated street with rows of neat, little houses on either side. Just to make sure, however, I stuck my tail outside and carefully pressed against the ground. After assuring myself it was stable, I opened the door fully and stepped outside, Kyra, with Gatomon on her shoulder, following behind. "Bark bark!" Kyra twisted around and rolled her eyes, planting her hands firmly on her hips. "Kira, no! You're not going anywhere!" she yelled in a loud, authoritative tone. The dog took the hint. She instantly lowered her ears and slowly rolled to her back, exposing her belly in a canine signal of submission. Not showing any sympathy for her, however, Kyra leaned forward and pulled the door shut, the outlines of its form simultaneously melting into the background until it was gone. "How you can stand such a creature living in your house is beyond me," Gatomon muttered. "I second that!" I exclaimed. With a helpless shrug from Kyra, the three of us began walking down the street, Kyra and I trying to recognize any distinctive landmarks that might give us a clue as to where we were. Which, of course, meant we had to walk for quite a while. Geez, do we ever do anything but walk? "Ahhhh!!!" I was instantly jerked out of my thoughts as my head popped up, ears alert, looking around for the source of the scream. "Prance, did you hear that?" Kyra asked, urgently. I rolled my eyes. "Is it really that necessary to say 'duh'?" "It came from over there!" Gatomon said, ignoring us as she leapt off Kyra's shoulder and jumped over a wall. Exchanging glances, we rushed after her, easily flying over the wall. Landing on the other side, I pressed my ruffled skirt down and continued running. "Grr, someone wanna remind me why I absolutely had to draw Prance in a skirt!" Kyra turned over her shoulder and grinned. "Because, you look just so fashionable in it! And besides. it matches your shoes." "Shut up, Kay," I spat. "Just shut up and run!" "Look! Up there!" Gatomon shouted from ahead of us. Looking up, we saw the cause for alarm. Ahead of us, across the street, sat what looked like a small park with swings, sand boxes, and a large, very familiar-looking slide that resembled a penguin with a crown. Next to the slide was what looked like a large, dark golden bubble made of electricity. Inside the bubble sat two children, a boy and a girl of about ten or eleven years, each clinging onto each other. "No way!" I whispered, amazed. Glancing at Kyra, I could tell by the gaping mouth and wide eyes she was thinking the same thing. "Well, don't just stand there!" Gatomon scolded. "Do something!" "Like what?" I asked. Gatomon turned and pointed at Kyra. "You, hold your hands out on the surface of the barrier." "Me!? Why me!?" "You can absorb the power through your hands, baby," Gatomon muttered. "Why can't she do it?" Kyra whined, sticking a finger out in my direction. I smirked. "You baby, I'm gonna help you!" Kyra looked at me, hesitating before grinning sheepishly. "Oh. I knew that." "Baby," I murmured, walking forward towards where the two children were. Kyra followed behind, her head hanging low. "I'm not a baby." "Yeah, right," I replied, "let's just do this." With a nod, Kyra placed her hands on top of the electric barrier at the same time I did. At first, it hurt. It really hurt. It felt like fire racing through my veins instead of blood, searing my skin. I could feel it slowly seeping through my fingers, then more quickly, surging up my arms and dispersing through the rest of my body, all the way down to my toes and the end of my tail. But I stuck through it, knowing that the fate of the two children depended on my and Kyra's efforts. Besides, compared to some of the stuff my brothers made me go through, this was almost nothing. As I glanced at Kyra, I noticed she was experiencing the same pain I was. However, after another moment, I noticed her gritted teeth and squeezed shut eyes were subsiding. The pain seemed to be wearing off. It did for me, too. What used to be searing pain turned into more of the feeling you get in your toes when your foot falls asleep- just a minor, almost tickling type of sensation. Sure enough, the electric dome was fading, too. What was once a bright, dark golden color was now hardly even visible, barely flickering with life.  
  
"Keep it up, we almost have it," Kyra exclaimed excitedly. "I can see that, Kay. I have eyes, too." Kyra glared at me. "What is this, 'pick-on-Kay Day'?" "Would both of you shut up?" Gatomon commanded. "The barrier's gone." Temporarily ignoring our mock feud, we held out hands to the stunned children and helped them to their feet. The girl dusted her black and white school uniform off with one hand, brushing the dust off her auburn brown hair. It was cut short, just above her shoulders and hung at either side of her head in two, cute little pigtails, save several strands beside her face, which hung low by her chin. Her emerald green eyes opened tentatively, looking around nervously as she clutched a long, pink wand with what looked like a bird's head on one end of it. Her companion's brown eyes opened and instantly turned towards her, concerned. His think, shaggy dark brown hair hung low in his face, which displayed an upset expression. He wore a black and white school uniform similar to the girl's with the same black jacket and white collar, except for the fact that he wore a pair of black pants instead of the white skirt the girl wore. At his side resting on the ground was a heavy, metal sword with a golden hilt. Kyra was the first to speak up. "Sakura, Li, are you guys okay?" The girl rubbed a sore spot on her arm as she smiled. "Yeah, we're fine." "Took you two long enough to get here," the boy muttered, picking up his sword and inspecting it for any damage. Kyra laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head as a sweatdrop rolled down the side of her head. "Sorry 'bout that, Li. We got here as fast as we could." "It's okay," Sakura assured her, "we're just glad you got here." "Who is that?" Li asked, pointing his sword at Gatomon. I paused. "Uh, well. we'll have to explain that later. but, for right now, what happened, anyway? What was that?" "We don't know," Sakura admitted. "I was at home with Tori and Kero when I sensed a huge power, and rushed here as fast as I could." "I showed up a few minutes later," Li spoke up, "and the next thing we knew, that huge electric field appeared out of nowhere and we couldn't move. Sakura couldn't use the cards and I couldn't use my incantations." "We were stuck until you and Prance showed up," Sakura added, smiling. I smiled. "Well, we're just glad we could help." Briefly, I glanced at Kyra. That's weird, they know me, here, too. They aren't supposed to, are they? No, they're not. Nodding, I turned to Sakura. "Did you see who threw that electric barrier thing?" Sakura looked down at the ground. "No." An affirming shake of his head assured me that Li didn't see anyone, either. Sighing, I folded my arms and looked around. "Well, I wonder who-" "I think I saw who did it." Everyone turned to the familiar voice as a small, golden teddy bear like creature flew towards us, staring at me with his beady black eyes. I looked at Keroberos questioningly. "You do?" Kero nodded. "Yeah. She," he muttered, jerking his thumb at Sakura, "just left the house without warning, and I had a bit of a hard time trying to follow her. By the time I did, I saw her and the brat kid underneath that barrier and somebody else walking away from it." "If you saw us in trouble, why didn't you help out?" Li demanded. Kero glared at him. "I was going to when I saw Kyra and Prance run forward to help. So, with them on the case, I figured I'd be more useful trying to track down the other guy." "Did you end up finding him?" Kyra asked, intrigued. Kero shook his head. "No, not really. Not enough to get a good look at him, anyway. But I did notice he had blonde hair and what looked like a gold tail coming out from beneath his shirt." I bit my lip, glancing at Kyra who looked at me at the exact same time. Rastal, we thought together. "So does this mean someone's after us?" Sakura asked timidly. "Don't worry," Kyra said gently. "I'm sure we'll be able to take care of it." "I hope so." Li glanced at Sakura, looking like he was struggling between wanting to comfort her or keeping his distance. I smiled. This was the Cardcaptors I knew. While Kyra and Kero spoke, Gatomon quietly slipped onto my shoulder and whispered, "That guy that he spoke of- was he the one from the other world?" I nodded. "Yeah, one of them." "So that means they can travel between worlds, too?" "Looks like it," I replied. "Why do you ask? Isn't it kind of obvious?" "Well, yeah." I glanced at her, suddenly aware of a confused expression planted on her feline face. "What is it?" "There's something I'll have to talk to you and Kyra about later, but not now," she whispered, "not in front of them." "Okay, if you say so," I muttered. "So, Prance, you never did tell us who your friend was," Li remarked, glancing at the two of us. Unknown to him, a sweatdrop rolled down the back of our heads. "Let's just say she's a friend of mine," I muttered. Li narrowed his eyes, smirking. "Yeah, I can see the resemblance." "What!?" Gatomon yelled frantically, "You think I look like that idiotic, freakish-looking, insult-to-all-cats weakling?" "What did you call me!?" I screamed back, fuming. "Hey, come on, guys," Lacey said, smiling nervously, "this really isn't the time for-" "SHUT UP!" we both exclaimed at the same time. Kyra instantly shrank behind Li, muttering a soft, "Oh, never mind, don't mind me." Sakura leaned forward towards Kyra, covering her mouth with her hand and whispering, "Do they always argue like this?" Unknown to me and Gatomon, Kyra timidly turned and nodded, a grim expression on her face. "Wow, they fight more than Kero and Meilin," Sakura replied thoughtfully. As Kero glared briefly at Sakura, both Kyra and Li remained silent, sweatdrops rolling down their heads. No one had any response to that. Meanwhile. "Why you dirty little scamp!" "Hah! Like I would actually care about your petty insults!" Gatomon spat. "You're not even worth my time." "Oh, I swear," I hissed, eyes glowing with rage, "just wait until I get my powers down. I'll burn you so bad, you'll look like kitty litter!" "Yeah, like that'll ever happen." "Why you little-" "Come on, you guys," Sakura broke in cheerfully, "you really shouldn't be fighting." See, had this been Kyra, again, we would have simply told her to shut up. Again. But since this was Sakura, someone we didn't know as well and who didn't know us, we both felt obliged to obey. Despite this, however, we both spun around, arms crossed, and loudly "Hmph!"-ed, holding our chins high. I noticed out of the corner of my eyes Kyra sink her head into her hand. "Well, now that we have that taken care of," Kero replied, glancing back and forth between me and Gatomon warily, ". uh, temporarily, what are we going to do about our new problem?" "I don't know about you," Li replied, throwing a brief glance at Sakura, "but I'm beat. I say we go back home for now and meet later tonight to discuss things." "Sounds good to me," Sakura replied happily. "I'm tired, too." I was about to agree when a sudden thought crossed my mind. "Yeah, but not too late, though." Everyone, save Gatomon, of course, looked at me, all confused except for Kyra. "Why?" Kero asked curiously. "Kyra, the rat," I added, glaring venomously at the digimon, "and I have. well, let's just call it a prior engagement later tonight." "Well, okay," Sakura said brightly. "Doesn't sound like a problem to me." Kyra nodded. Good thinking. I grinned smugly, privately wishing Gatomon had heard the compliment. Recognizing the look, Kyra suddenly had a worried look cross her face and leaned over to Sakura, starting to whisper something in her ear when she looked at me. Or, more precisely, my ears. Quickly, she straightened and merely looked at the girl, probably telepathically communicating with her for several seconds later, Sakura smiled and nodded, walking towards Gatomon as Kyra walked towards Li and me. "What did you tell her?" I asked suspiciously. Kyra grinned. "Oh, I just asked her if Gatomon could hang out with her and Kero. Thought it might be smarter than having her come back with you." I grimaced. "True." Nodding, Kyra turned to Li. "Well, ready to go?" Li shrugged, walking past her towards one of the streets. Walking behind him, I leaned over and whispered, "Is he your brother?" She leaned over and whispered back, "Well, he's supposed to be. So far, I think it's all alright, but you never know, huh?" Nodding, I straightened and continued walking, pushing my fluffed out skirt down occasionally. Whether it was because of all that electrical energy I had absorbed or what, it suddenly felt like creeping up every so often and bugged the heck out of me. I glanced at Kyra's comfortable jean shorts and sighed. Lucky. "Uh, you having problems?" Kyra asked pointedly, unable to hide the sly sparkle in her eyes. I narrowed my eyes. "No, I happen to be perfectly fine, thank you!" I snapped. "Sure?" "Hunky Dory!" Kyra nodded, obviously not believing me for five minutes later, after noticing I was still having trouble with the skirt, she leaned over again and whispered, "You know, I probably have clothes you can borrow back at Li's apartment, if you-" "Thank God!" I whispered harshly, pushing my skirt down yet again. "I was seriously getting ready to rip this thing off, myself!" Kyra giggled and nodded. "Sure thing. It looks like we're almost there, anyway," she added, pointing to the tall apartment building not far away that Li was heading towards. Sighing my relief, I all but ripped my skirt to my knees as I pressed on. Several minutes later, Kyra and I found ourselves stepping out of the elevator onto the third floor, and walking down the hallway to the door Li had left open. Stepping inside after Kyra, I closed the door and turned to study the small apartment. For a place supposedly kept by a kid and Kyra, it was surprisingly decent, no piles of clothes on the floor or dishes piling up on the sink like I would have expected (she isn't exactly the tidiest person I know, in case you couldn't tell.). Instead, it was all quite neat. In front of me sat a long couch with small pillows scattered across it, facing the television set. Behind the "living room" was an even smaller kitchenette about the size of a large closet with a refridgerator, stove and sink crammed into one space while a three-seated table sat next to it against the wall. Between the kitchenette and the living room was a narrow hallway, most likely leading to the bedrooms. Noticing Li's sword leaned against the wall nest to the TV, I leaned over towards Kyra and smirked. "Wow, I'm impressed. Considering the fact that you live here, I'm quite shocked to be able to even see the floor." "Shut up," she hissed, elbowing me none too lightly. Of course, expecting such a reaction, I was easily able to step out of the way, leaving time for her to snort softly and begin walking towards the hallway, saying along the way, "Come on, if you want to change out of those clothes." Following quickly behind, she led me to the first room on the left- a spacious, neat little bedroom with a large bed beneath the windowsill, pillows and stuffed animals strewn across the top. A dresser next to the door, a desk beside the bed and a bookshelf next to that totaled all the furniture in the room. Again, to my surprise, it was all completely clean! I was about to mention this to Kyra when I noted the 'don't-you-even-dare- think-about-it' look she gave me and instantly clamped my mouth tighter. After that, I couldn't tell whether she had merely shrugged or attempted to hide a smile of satisfaction as she turned and jerked her thumb towards the adjoined closet doors on the opposite side of her bed as the desk. "The clothes in there are yours for the taking. Take whatever you'd like- I'm gonna go take a shower and get these clothes washed." "Don't you want to change your clothes?" I asked. Kyra turned back to me and grinned. "What, and mess up my traditional attire? Tu rigoles, pour sur!" she added, laughing at her own imperfect French. I rolled my eyes. "Whatever." As Kyra disappeared out the door and down the hallway, I paused before entering the closet, taking the time to examine the pictures set up on her desk. They littered the desk surface, some set in frames, others tacked on the wall. Most were of her and Li, some now, and some a lot older due to Kyra's younger appearance. One even included Li and four other girls- Li's four other sisters. By now, I had pretty much made the assumption that he was her brother, and the pictures were the evidence to support my guess. Other pictures included Sakura and Kero, most likely taken by the illustrious Madison, the photography fanatic best friend of Sakura's. More than a few photos of herself included two other guys, both her age- Tori, the dark haired, protective older brother of Sakura, and Julian, his gluttonous yet sweet and kind hearted friend. Knowing Kyra, it was hard to tell whether or not she considered either as a boyfriend, or both of them as good friends. Like previously mentioned, her mind is something I won't even attempt to deal with. As my eyes scanned over each of the pictures, they stopped on one framed in a deep, red oak with flowers engraved on it. Curious, I reached forward and picked the picture up, looking at it closely. In the photo were two people, arms linked across their shoulders, smiling gaily. One, of course, was Kyra, and the other, to my ultimate surprise, was me! Me, though, without my ears and tail. And, instead of my normal uniform, I wore one identical to the one she wore in the picture- a long, light blue jacket over a white shirt and dark blue tie, with a long, also dark blue skirt hanging past my knees- the uniform of the Readington High School Tori and Julian attended. So I'm a part in all this, too? I wondered, gently replacing the frame back on the desk. With thoughts milling through my head, I absently walked to the closet and slid open the doors. Many clothes were hung neatly (again- big surprise!) on hangers, from multicolored shirts to ironed shorts, jeans, and skirts. I grinned. Hey, this might be fun, I thought as I sorted through the clothes, wondering what look I should give the new Prance.  
  
About an hour later, I stepped out of the bathroom, my hair still wet, and walked quietly down the hallway towards Kyra's room. Pushing the door open, I smiled, waving my hand emphatically. "Well, whadya think?" Kyra looked up, her face brightening. "Well, well, looks like Miss Prance is in style!" I grinned confidently, agreeing with her. And why wouldn't I, I'd like to know? I thought I looked way cool. Walking to the wall beside her bed, I gazed at myself at the full length mirror, marveling at my change. Instead of my puffy-sleeved school shirt, I now wore a dark green, loose fitting shirt reaching just below my waist with sleeves barely skimming my elbows. My pants (thank God, I finally have pants!) reminded me of military-type cargo pants, kind of khaki in color and somewhat baggy, tucked into my tall, brown shoes, which were, by the way, much more comfortable for running and jumping and all that stuff that my other ones. My hair, still glistening with moisture from the shower, no longer hung loosely around me, but was instead tied back into a long braid that ended at about just past my waist. Oh, yeah, I thought smugly, I be cool! "Ladies and gentlemen," Kyra began, holding an imaginary microphone to her lips, "and here is the highlight of tonight's show- the lovely Miss Prance, sporting the ever stylish hip-hugging cargo pants and sleek tee, the newest fashion statement of the century!" "Very funny," I scoffed, flicking my tail at her. Kyra leaned back to avoid the hit, grinning childishly. "Aw, come on, like you never dreamed of being a fashion model." I raised an eyebrow mockingly. "Who said I ever had to dream it?" At this comment, both of us reeled over laughing, me clutching my stomach while Kyra rolled onto her back, laughing so hard she nearly fell off the bed! Our joy was short lived, however, as we suddenly heard the loud, steady ring of the phone in the living room. Before we could even open the door, Li was there with the phone at his ear, saying gruffly, "Yeah?" Hiding behind the door, Kyra and I snickered as we noticed his cheeks flush and his tone lighten as he said quickly, "Oh, Sakura. I, uh. huh? She wants to talk to them?. What, here?. well, alright, I'll go get them." Exchanging questioning glances, Kyra and I walked outside and down the hallway to the living room. Li looked up at us, pointing at the receiver and mouthing that it was for us. Glancing back at me, Kyra shrugged as she stepped forward to claim the phone while I plopped myself down on the couch, flicking my ears back and forth to hear the conversation. "Sakura?" "It's not Sakura, it's me," replied a gruff voice. I rolled my eyes. Kyra saw the move and merely smiled. "Oh, sorry Gatomon. What did you need?" "Didn't Prance tell you I needed to talk to you guys?" "No, she didn't happen to mention any of that to me," Kyra replied, throwing a frown in my direction. I shrugged, unconcerned. "Figures," Gatomon muttered. "Anyway, meet me at the park. There's something I need to tell you." "When?" "Now!" "Oh, okay, okay!" Kyra said quickly, but to no avail, for the line was already dead. Placing the receiver back on the hook, Kyra stared sternly at me, grinning. "Geez, what's her problem?" "I think the correct question is what's not her problem," I replied dryly. Kyra nodded, smirking. "If there is anything." "Doubt it," I muttered. "So, shall we go then?" Kyra asked, folded her arms. Shrugging, I grudgingly pushed myself off the couch and arched my back, enjoying the pleasurable stretch. "Well, I guess so. Doesn't look like much else is gonna happen until we all meet up, again, tonight, so we might as well." "Sounds good to me," Kyra quipped, turning to Li. "So, I guess we'll see ya later. We're going to go meet Gatomon to go talk with her about. uh, something or other." Li shrugged. "Kay, then. Don't be out too long." Kyra grinned, wrapping an arm around her "brother's" neck and lovingly pulling him close, giggling. "Sure thing, mother." "Cut it out," he muttered, turning slightly red despite his small smile. Laughing, Kyra released him and strolled to the front door, turning back to him briefly. "Well, see ya!" 


	8. Enter the Wolf

Chapter 8:  
Enter the wolf  
  
W e both saw Gatomon standing on top of the Penguin slide by the time we reached the park, looking out over the treetops at the quickly fading sun. As we approached, I was about to throw some clever comment at her when I quickly closed my mouth, studying her expressionless face. Something's on her mind, I mentioned. Kyra nodded and stepped forward, beginning the conversation. "Uh, you wanted to see us?" Gatomon's eyes flitted towards us before she turned her entire body, slowly. I gulped. Something must have been really bothering her for her to be taking her time like this. And things that bothered her kinda made me nervous. "Remember, Prance, what I had asked you about earlier?" Gatomon began quietly, looking at me. "About that one guy traveling between worlds?" I glanced at Kyra before replying warily, "Yeah, what about it?" Gatomon frowned uncertainly, looking down at the ground. "Well. I think I may have. seen him." "What!?" Kyra and I exclaimed at the same time. Gatomon glared at me scornfully (why only at me and not Kyra, I don't know. she's got something against me, I swear!). "Well, it was somebody! I'm not sure if it's the same guy that Kero-thing was talking about, but I know I saw somebody!" "Why didn't you say something about this earlier?" Kyra asked. "Yeah, we've been through, what, four worlds already?" I added. "You can't seriously tell me it just 'slipped your mind' for four days!" "Hey, shut up!" Gatomon screamed defensively. "I didn't think it was anything until Goku and Trunks mentioned about it yesterday, and even then, I wasn't sure if it was necessary to say anything about it because I didn't think they could switch between worlds like we could! I thought they were just confined to Goku's world!" "Hey, calm down," Kyra said gently. "We didn't mean to offend you. And you," she added harshly, looking at me, "stop picking on her!" "Wha-!?" I uttered before shutting my mouth and folding my arms irritably, ears involuntarily pressed against my head in anger. Ignoring me, Kyra turned back to Gatomon. "So, back to you. you had said you had seen somebody. Are you saying you didn't think you saw Rastal?" Looking uneasily between me and Kyra, Gatomon answered, "Well, if he's the guy Kero mentioned, then no, I'm pretty sure it wasn't him I saw." Despite my anger, my ears perked and my breath came short as I listened to Kyra's next question. "Well, just tell us when and how you saw him." "Well," Gatomon began, "it was way back in the beginning, while I was looking for you, when I saw. him. I just noticed him out of the corner of my eye, though, and when I turned to check, he was gone, so I had thought nothing of it, but now, I'm pretty sure I saw him." "What did he look like?" I asked, all contempt gone from my voice. "He was tall, I remember that. Probably almost as tall as Goku, maybe just a little shorter. I didn't have that much time to notice any specific details, but he did have dark hair, I think it was black. And I think I noticed a tail, too. Weird color. it was black, but when he moved and the light fell on it, it looked like it was bright blue." "That's not Rastal," Kyra said quietly, eyes slowly drifting towards me. "I know," I whispered. "Then, was the guy I saw the other one?" Gatomon asked. "Sirius?" I nodded, frowning. "So that means. he was after me from the beginning." "I guess so," Kyra said softly. Gatomon glanced at me, appearing to want to throw a comment at me before she decided otherwise and asked me blankly, "Tell me, why does this Sirius guy want to kill you, anyway?" "Well," I began slowly, "when I first came up with the story revolving around Sirius and Prance, obviously, since she was a cat and he was a wolf, they were supposed to fight. As to exactly why he wants to kill me, I'm not sure." "You're not sure?" Kyra scoffed, despite herself. "I thought you were the one who wrote the whole thing, weren't you?" "Well, yeah, but that was a long time ago, and I've done a lot since then. So long that I guess I've kinda forgot." Kyra sighed, shrugging as she leaned up against the side of the Penguin slide beneath where Gatomon stood. "Too bad. Would have been really handy information, you know? The whole 'keeping-you-alive' thing would be a lot easier with it." "You don't think I know that!" I spat. "Hey, calm down, I was only joking!" "It wasn't funny," I grumbled, sticking my hands in my pockets. "Why don't you try and see for yourself how you'd like being chased by three cartoon characters you've created and are trying to kill-" Suddenly, I stopped talking as I perked my ears and lifted my head. A cold chill ran down my spine as I scanned the darkness. "What's the matter?" Kyra asked. "Shh!" I hissed. "I heard something." Gatomon rolled her eyes. "You're crazy. I didn't hear a thing." "Seriously," I whispered, ignoring her insult. "I know I heard-" *crunch* "What was that?" I whispered hoarsely, ignoring my braid flinging in my face as I whipped my head around. "Did you hear that?" "No," Gatomon said flatly. "I still say you're hear-" *crunch* The startled expression crossing her face told me she definitely heard that! Suppressing the great urge to mutter 'I told ya so,' I swiveled my head around back and forth, searching for the source of the sound. "It sounds like footsteps," Kyra whispered. "Footsteps coming closer," Gatomon agreed, ears swiveling around quickly. I squinted as my eyes scanned the area, looking for any moving shadow possible. I did not like this. It was totally cliché. Outside in the pitch darkness. Nobody around at all. Footsteps softly moving along the pavement. Any minute, now, I was expecting someone to leap out at us from the shadows. Totally predictable. But with the knowledge that three dangerous cartoon characters were wandering around out there, currently unstoppable, didn't make the predictability feel at all reassuring. Suddenly, I felt it. What 'it' was exactly, I can't exactly describe. Not in a way that would make any sense, anyway. I mean, you know the feeling you get when your foot falls asleep? Well, multiply that times about a thousand and that would be close to what I felt. It was as if for that brief moment, all the blood in my body stopped rushing, for that instant freezing like ice. I gasped. "What's the matter?" Kyra asked. "S-sss-ss-" "What?" "S-ss-si-" "What are you doing?" Gatomon hissed impatiently? I gulped nervously, desperately trying to control my terribly trembling voice. "S-ssi-sii-rrusss-ss." I managed. "What did you say?" Kyra asked again, leaning closer. Before I could stutter again, a soft laugh interrupted me, sending the same, blood-freezing chill through my spine again. "She said Sirius." Next thing I knew, as Kyra and Gatomon were swiveling their head's towards the voice, I was suddenly jumping forward, tackling them both forcefully. We all landed with a loud and painful 'thump' on the sand in the sandbox, Gatomon unfortunately tucked beneath our combined weight. "What the heck do you think you're doing!?" Gatomon screeched, glaring up at me venomously. "Are you trying to break my-" To my surprise, Kyra had clamped her hand over the digimon's mouth, ignoring the death glare received and merely pointing behind me. I slowly rolled off them to allow Gatomon to get a better look. The spot where we had just stood only seconds before was smooth and pale blue in color. From our position beside it, the three of us could clearly see our reflection staring back at us, baffled. The ground was completely slicked over with ice. "W-where did t-that come from!?" Gatomon demanded nervously. Not paying attention, I instead threw my head up, looking into the shadows of the forest. "S-sirius, w-where are you!" I exclaimed in a much less intimidating tone that I was aiming for. A moment of silence followed before the same, chilling voice spoke up again. "So, you do know me. He said you would." "He?" Kyra repeated. "What do you mean by 'he'?" "You'd be better off hushing your mouth. You're not the one I'm after." I gulped. His words sent chills up my spine. Despite this, however, I took a tentative step forward and shouted, "Sirius, show yourself!" "As you wish. Afterall, you are going to die, soon, anyway." Again, I heard the rustling of decaying leaves underfoot and turned towards the source of the noise. From the shadows of the forest, a figure was walking slowly along the cobblestone path. It was scary how much Sirius looked exactly like the Sirius I had drawn- no, not quite, but more like the one I had imagined. But what was even scarier was. I don't know, I can't describe it. Not quite his appearance, but more. his presence. The Sirius I had made so long ago was strong and dangerous, and, of course, funny and a bit arrogant, but to me, he never felt. well, deadly. Now, however, was a completely different story. Everything about him, though, technically was the same. He was tall, probably standing about a head above me, and well built. Not nearly as muscular as Goku or any of them, but also, clearly not needing to be. He had long, raven black hair, somewhat coarse, but you couldn't really tell too much due to the fact that the majority of it was tied back into a low ponytail while the remaining few strands hung limply at the sides of his face. Set deeply into his mass of black was a pair of sharp, black ears. Like Gatomon had said earlier, his fur briefly flashed back and forth between black and blue in the glare of the street light. His jaw was squarely set, and unlike the Sirius I had dreamed of during so many math classes, his smile was nowhere to be found. Instead, the barest hint of a smirk played at the corners of his lips. But what scared me most about him- about this guy who was supposed to be Sirius- were his eyes. His cold, dark, almost apathetic blue eyes. Like the guy behind them was heartless, and truly. evil. But that couldn't possibly be true, could it? I mean, sure Sirius was bad in the beginning, but I never made him evil. did I? At first glance, he certainly didn't look the part. Save the ears and the similarly colored long tail, shaggy like a wolf's, sweeping the ground as he walked, he looked almost ordinary. He wore nothing more than a simple black tank top and loose fitting dark blue jeans in which he stuck his hands in the pockets, appearing as casual and laid-back as anyone. But to me, as he slowly walked closer, the daunting look in his eyes sent shivers up my spine and made my fur rise. Suddenly, a tap on my shoulder made me jump and I spun around, looking at Kyra questioningly. well, only for maybe a moment, for very quickly, the questioning look was replaced by one of utter astonishment. Kyra was staring at Sirius with eyes I had only seen while she was in the presence of one thing- chocolate. Something she absolutely, above all else, loves. And in the context of Sirius, I could already guess what was going on through her mind. Prance, are you absolutely sure he's a bad guy? she whined, not blinking even once as she absorbed Sirius's appearance into her memory. As stunned as I was, for some bizarre reason, I was not surprised. Maybe Kyra wouldn't behave this way, but there's no way Lacey, even in the face of danger, could resist shedding a few drops of drool over a hot guy- even if that guy was Sirius. no, take that back, try especially if that guy were Sirius! Looking back at him, I bit my lip anxiously. Sorry, Ky, but this time, I know it. I almost felt a sweatdrop growing on the back of my head as I heard a soft whimper erupt from behind me when I noticed Sirius stopped, now hardly six feet away from me. It took all of my strength alone to force my knees to not buckle in fear as I looked at him- at the look of malignant confidence he cast toward me. "Don't try to hide your fear," he said casually, parting his lips to show his tongue rolling over his teeth like a typical canine. "I can already smell it." I did my best to straighten, throwing a mild glare back at him. "Whoever said I was trying to hide it?" Sirius raised an eyebrow, grinning in spite of himself, which did nothing to ease the rapidly increasing uneasiness in my chest. "You've got a lot of spunk. or perhaps, it's just plain stupidity." Now, as scared as I was, this wry arrogance of his that I had originally thought of as charming was beginning to appear really, really annoying. "Call it whatever you want, jerk!" I hissed, anger forcing my confidence to grow. "Oh, really? Am I getting on your nerves, little kitten?" Sirius cooed curiously. All of a sudden, I felt my blood boil. Now, had the term 'little kitten' been used to describe me several days ago, I would react either one of two ways: 1) I would have blushed lightly and shyly turned away while on the inside, I'd be melting, or 2) I would have looked at the person strangely and felt their forehead for a fever. However, in this circumstance, especially since I was now a cat myself, I think it's safe to say, neither reaction applied. "Why you." I began, my voice threateningly low. I even heard Kyra slowly back away from me (eyes most likely still on Mr. Likes-to-Piss-me-off!) in preparation for the onslaught of insults she knew were to come. And believe me, they were coming! ".rude, pig-headed, obnoxious, over-confident, stuck up, idiotic, conceited, disgusting, dim-witted, pathetic-excuse-for-an- animal.. ugh, bastard!" As I sputtered out every wicked, offensive adjective I could think of, I stepped back, taking in a deep breath of satisfaction. Let the obnoxious pig 'witty-comment' his way out of that one! Suddenly, to my ultimate surprise and dismay, Sirius took a step back and began laughing. Laughing! I couldn't believe it! Laughing! After all that, he seriously had the nerve to laugh at me! "Uh, Prance?" Kyra whispered hesitantly, poking me in the back lightly, "are you sure it's really that good of an idea to be screaming verbal abuse to the guy who's trying to kill you?" I swirled around to face her, the steam from my temper still raging. "Hey, exactly who's side are you on, anyway!?" Taking the hint, she shrank away immediately, making me just about to feel bad about blowing up at her when Sirius began to talk again. "Hah, not bad for a little fur ball!" he retorted, calming himself down enough to look at me. "I'll at least give you that much. It's not often I get prey that actually has the guts to try and cheek me. But," he added, slipping his hands out from his pockets, grinning wickedly, "I suppose that'll just make killing you all the more fun!" Oh, great job, Prance, I chided myself. Once again, your anger just takes over, and you had to go and open up your big mouth! Before I had time to even register the tingling feeling in the back of my mind, I was suddenly in the air, looking down below at Sirius who had apparently lunged at me. Thank God for 'cat-senses'! Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Gatomon and Kyra also getting out of the way. But my attention was hardly averted for a millisecond when Sirius was suddenly in my face, grinning evilly again. "Hello." This time, I was barely able to avoid his attack, a thin cut running along my cheek displaying such. This was certainly not going to be fun! "Prance, watch out!" I heard Kyra scream. No duh! "You don't think I know that!?" I yelled irritatedly, continually jumping backward as Sirius's attack pressed forward. After one jab in particular, I jumped up and forward, planting my feet on his back and kicking hard to propel myself. Of course, knowing Sirius, I'd be surprised if he even felt it. With the extra boost, I was able to thrust myself to the other side of the park, spinning around as soon as I landed. Sirius stood where he was, slowly turning around to face me. Soft footsteps behind me announced Kyra and Gatomon's presence. What are we going to do? Kyra asked, away from Sirius's well-adapted ears. We certainly can't face him now! We haven't learned any of our techniques, yet! I mean, at this rate, he'll.. Sirius will.. I grimaced. I know. Right now, the only thing we can really do is hope Sakura and Li get here soon to help us out. Wouldn't they have sensed his presence by now, though? I don't know. Maybe they- "Well, this isn't really fun," Sirius spoke up patently. "From what I had heard, you were supposed to have been able to put up more of a fight, but if all you're going to do is run away, I guess I'll have to end this, then." "No," I whispered desperately, glaring at him. "Not yet." "Sorry," Sirius replied, grinning, "all requests are officially denied." And with that, he began running forward, death fully expressed in his cold eyes. For some bizarre reason, as he approached, I suddenly started to see everything in slow motion. Like someone had pressed pause on the VCR, and was playing along the rest of the video very slowly. Sirius's body was a mere blue and black blur, slowly getting closer and closer. My heartbeat rang loudly in my ear, and my breath came short. It was similar to the feeling I had felt while I had fallen from the sky after leaving Mr. Carr's class. A single thought ran through my head. Is this what it feels like when you know you're going to die? As Sirius's form drew ever nearer, I exhaled a deep sigh and closed my eyes. There was nothing more I could do. I guess I won't get to see this all through to the end, afterall.. Some hero I am. Suddenly, I felt my body jerk. But no pain? It didn't quite make sense. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes. Below stood Sirius, looking up at me, for the first time looking slightly annoyed. And yes, I did say below. Way below. "W-what?" I said quietly, still too shaken by the near-death experience to speak right. "I certainly hope these things don't decide to pop out at the last minute like that all the time!" My head spun around. Kyra was looking down at me, grinning her head off. Behind her, I noticed Gatomon looking out past her head. Past her, I noticed something else- wings? Suddenly, it all clicked. Kyra held me up about a hundred feet in the air, her hands holding tightly to my arms. Apparently, just a fraction of a second before Sirius had reached me, her wings had pulled through and she grabbed Gatomon and me and took off. As I looked down once again, I was relieved to see the wolf-boy's figure rapidly shrinking, as we were lifter higher and higher. "Hello? Prance? You still here with us?" I blinked, shaking my head and barely managing a smile. "I agree." "What?" I looked up at her, smiling again. "As much as I'm happy they did work, I really hope those wings of yours don't decide to cut it that close all the time." Kyra grinned, nodding. From her comfortable position on her back, Gatomon rolled her eyes. "Sure, if you really call a simple glide like this 'working'." "Hey, it got us away from Sirius, didn't it?" Kyra replied cheerfully. "And at least I have an updraft to work with instead of dead air, like at Kami's lookout." I quirked an eyebrow. "Hmph, are you sure you're all that happy about leaving Sirius behind? For a second there, I was sure you were ready to turn to the dark side and join him." Cheeks bright red, Kyra opened her mouth to throw a comment back at me when Gatomon quickly shut it again. "Argue later, look out!" Nest thing I knew, I was swung to the right as Kyra quickly angled her wings, barely allowing room for a shaft of blue light to pass by. Even though the beam didn't touch any of us, I still felt the prickling of my skin as the cold blast passed us. Looking down, I saw Sirius with his hands outstretched, looking directly up at us. "He's firing at us!?" I exclaimed, watching as another sphere of light grew in each of his palms. "No duh, Einstein!" Gatomon snapped. "Kyra, dodge left!" Kyra obeyed, this time better prepared for the attack as the shot flew several feet passed us. "We can't dodge them forever!" I said, looking up at her. "I know. We have to get out of here!" "Can't you put on some speed?" Gatomon asked impatiently. "Like I said before, I'm on an updraft. It's doing the work, not me." "What if you were to break from it?" I suggested hopefully. Kyra shook her head. "I'm still too new on these things. Off of the security blanket of the updraft, I doubt I'd be able to hold myself up, much less the both of you. At this height, we'd probably suffer more from a crash than by anything Sirius could do to us." I cringed at the thought. "Gee, thanks for the image," I muttered dryly. "Kyra, watch out!" Gatomon screeched. "Wait! Which w-" She didn't have time to finish. I barely noticed Sirius's grin of satisfaction as Kyra's left wing turned to a block of ice and we slowly began plummeting to the ground. My mind began racing. "Kyra!" Gatomon exclaimed as our friend's face contorted in pain. "Gatomon, we have to jump!" The digimon looked up at me, shocked. "What!?" "I said we have to jump!" I repeated. "Are you crazy!? Didn't you hear what Kyra said? If we jump from up here, we'll-" "But we're cats, aren't we?" I asked persistently. "Besides, we're not as high up as we were before, and if we jump now, we'll be able to land just in time to turn around and catch Kyra!" Gatomon stared at me, clearly stuck between being surprised at my idea and surprised that I even came up with an idea. As irritating as this was, however, I glanced down at the quickly approaching ground, then back at Gatomon. "Come on, we don't have much time! Either we jump now, or die a horrible death like Kyra had said." Gritting her teeth, Gatomon didn't respond, but instead stood on Kyra's back and leapt off. With Kyra too absorbed in her pain to notice, I forced myself out from her grip and joined her. It was a very good thing I was already somewhat exposed to jumping from high places, because had this been my first time, I most likely would have peed my pants by now. Luckily, however, the height was about the same as the tree from the Digital World was, and both Gatomon and I were able to land on our feet with little more than a slight tingle in our feet from the absorbed landing. I didn't even have time to ask if Gatomon was okay, because as I looked up, Kyra was still plunging directly toward us with the weight of the ice- frozen wing to increase her speed. Before I could react, I was in the air again, crashing into her limp form about ten feet from the ground and using my own body weight to push her off course and slow her down dramatically. Falling in a new direction, I was barely able to land before her just enough to spin around and catch her, which, despite her lack of speed, still proved difficult because of the over-bearing wing. "Is she okay?" Gatomon asked, running up to us. I merely nodded, the wind slightly knocked out of me for the moment. In my arms, despite the obviously excrutiating pain she was going through, Kyra managed a weak smile. "C-come on. I'm not. that heavy, am I?" Despite me own weariness and exhaustion from the lack of adrenaline spent on her rescue, I set her down on the ground, coughing up a crude laugh. "Leave it to you to always try to make people laugh in the worst of situations." "Heh. just doin' my job," she replied hoarsely, rubbing her shoulder. Now, as I looked down at her, I noticed some of the side effects of her injured wing- her skin was bruised from the chunks of ice banging against her body, and her back and arms exposed to the ice were slowly changing from blue to purple. "We need to get her out of here," I said to Gatomon who also was examining Kyra's damage. "Wasn't there someone we met somewhere or other that could heal people?" "I don't know," the digimon admitted. "There might be some digimon who could make something to help her-" "Dende can heal," Kyra said carefully, trying to save her breath. "You guys didn't meet him, but he's from the Dragonball Z world. he can heal." Kyra's words were cut short as a blast of ice close to us averted our attention. About twenty feet away stood Sirius who had regained his confident smirk, a ball of blue light in hand. "You're a lot more troublesome than I would have thought," he said, addressing Kyra. "Maybe I should just take care of you, as well." Suddenly, as much a surprise to me as it was to Gatomon and Kyra, I stood up, ignoring my exhaustion as I locked eyes with Sirius. "You won't touch another feather on her!" Sirius looked at me skeptically, eyebrow raised. "Oh, really? And what makes you think that?" "Cause if you even think about it," I replied, my voice low and dripping with every ounce of strength in my body, "I'll kill you." Sirius grinned, even going so far as to emit a chuckle from between his lips. "You will, now?" Slowly, I began to walk forward. Where this newfound strength was coming from, I wasn't sure. Of course, it was mainly out of wanting to protect my best friend, but then again, it was. something else. It was as if deep inside me, a spark was made when Sirius had first hurt Kyra, and now, as his threats, and my anger, both grew, the spark was growing. With each step I took, I felt it blossom into a raging fire within my body, rising slowly to its peak which was yet to come. This strange fire, whatever it was, was all me- Prance, the warrior, and suddenly, I felt empowered enough to take on ten Sirius's. Now, I stopped, standing face to face with the guy who had said he wanted to kill my best friend and me. My eyes hardly came to his chin, but I looked him in the eye defiantly, all fear erased from my mind and replaced by one thing- rage. "Well, well, well, aren't we the tough little kitty, today?" Sirius taunted, unable to hide his cocky grin. "What's the matter, ticked that I plucked your friend's wings?" I clenched my fists, trying desperately not to punch him in the face. He'd probably expect it, and not only that, enjoy it. No, what he deserved was something that would wipe the stupid grin off of his face. Sirius's eyes gleamed. "Come on, you know you want to hit me. I can smell it right on you, the anger and the struggle to hold back. Why not just get it over with?" Then, in a complete surprise to Gatomon, Kyra, and even Sirius himself, I felt the corners of my mouth give into a slight smirk. "Because I have nothing to prove." "Nothing to prove?" Sirius repeated, briefly dropping his mask of security. "Nope, nothing at all," I continued, my voice low and calm, but at the same time. lethal. I was loving every minute of this. "You see, I already know who and what I am. It was something I've established not too long ago. I know I'm strong, and I know I don't need to go around taunting others or give into the temptation of kicking your sorry butt to prove this, which, by the way, I noticed was something you seem to enjoy a lot. What's the matter, Sirius?" I added, unable to resist myself. "Aren't you strong. wittle puppy?" No need for description, here. let's just say, I can now imagine what I looked like only minutes ago when he dared to call me a. grr. little kitten. Sirius's face slowly grew from a pale pink to a bright red, teeth clenched in fury. He glared down at me, his eyes blazing furiously. "Why you little." "What?" I taunted, enjoying my brief taste of power. "Little kitten?" Suddenly, Sirius whipped his hand forward, eyes narrowed. "Let's see how cocky you'll be when your friends are buried alive in ice!" I blinked. My smile was gone. It was replaced by a scream. "NOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Remember that tiny spark inside me?. Yeah, well, try turning tiny spark to raging inferno. *BOOM!* Next thing I knew, my entire vision was shrouded in flames. Of course, I was still so pissed off at Sirius, my brain didn't register the pain for another several seconds. But when my nerves finally kicked in. well, at first, I thought they weren't working because I didn't feel anything. Nada. Nothing. Zip. No burn, no scorching, no pain. Of course, I did feel really really hot, but. I guess it just merely didn't feel bad. Like how someone born in Alaska feels good in the cold temperature or someone in the Sahara desert with the heat. I was more like the latter. Normally, I never was one for the sun. I liked to be a little cool. But as swelteringly hot as I was, I strangely felt. comfortable. Almost even relaxed. Sirius, on the other hand, was not. As the brief shock of my discovery wore off, I looked up at Sirius through my. uh, 'armor' of fire. His right hand, previously outstretched before me, was now curled safely within his arms. I smiled- I could barely make out a hint of charred skin. I hurt him. "You. you fucking idiot!" he screamed, cradling his scorched hand gently. I hurt him good. Quickly, Sirius leapt back, away from my burning body, glaring hatefully at me. His ears were flattened against his skull and his tail was rigid- he was beyond pissed- he was infuriated. Not that I cared. All I cared about was that I protected Kyra and Gatomon and that he paid for what he did. Big time. "What's the matter, Sirius?" I demanded, feeling my anger rise, not for any particular reason more than the fun of it. "You wanted to mess with me, and so you messed with me. But remember this- don't pick on my friends unless you're prepared for major ass-torching, kapeesh?" "Shut up, you little tramp!" Sirius snapped, releasing his injured hand to crouch low. "No more messing around then. Time to take care of what I should have done in the first place!" I leaned low myself, tail lashing behind me, hissing venomously, "Bring it on, puppy dog!" With a fierce growl, Sirius leapt forward, another ball of ice already prepped and ready in his untouched hand. I clenched my fists, unable to resist a small smile. Was it really only minutes before when I was scared stiff of this guy? Now, fired up (literally) and ready to do some damage, I was ready for anything he could dish out. "Let's go." 


	9. Feline, Party of 2

Chapter 9:  
Feline, party of two  
  
A soft, dull light shone through my close eyelids. I uttered a low groan, gently placing my arm over my forehead as I slowly opened my eyes. "Falling asleep on the job, again?" I don't know whether it was out of exhaustion or pure laziness that it took so long for the voice to register through my head and send a message to my brain telling me I knew it, but when I did recognize it, I sat up quickly, smacking heads with the person who had spoke. Ignoring my pain, I stared at him, not believing my eyes. "Jason!?" "You idiot!" he yelled, rubbing his forehead. "What'd you do that for!?" "W-what the heck are you doing here!?" I sputtered, eyes wide. "What do you think, moron?" he exclaimed, straightening. "You think I come here everyday during 5th period for my health?" About to throw another question at him, I suddenly paused and looked around. Was this for real? Apparently, I was sitting on the practice stage in the black mini theater, the same place Kyra and. I mean, Lacey and I had gone for lunch the day we started this whole mess. Suddenly, with her on my mind, I was reminded of my confrontation with Sirius and Kyra's weakened condition. I instantly jumped up and whirled around to face Jason. "Where is she!?" I demanded. "Where is who?" "Kyra!" "Who the heck is Kyra?" I clenched my fists, struggling to stay under control. "Lacey. where's Lacey?" Jason stared at me incredulously, as if I were an alien or something. Realizing he was going to be little help, I spun around and stomped towards the door. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" "I have to find Ky- Lacey, I have to see if she's alright!" "What are you talking about? She's at home, remember?" I stopped in my tracks, looking over my shoulder at him. "What do you mean?" Jason, still rubbing his head, placed his hand on his hip. "She went home sick, remember? Threw up in the bathroom at snack?" "What?" "What in the world is up with you, today? Are you on steroids or something?" I rolled my eyes, exhaling deeply, trying to think. If what Jason had said was true, and she was 'at home,' then why was I here? Wouldn't we be together? And more importantly, was she okay? Those wounds of hers would only get worse- she needed help, and fast. But what could I do, sitting here? Exhaustion and fatigue suddenly catching up to me, I wearily walked back to the stage and sat down, leaning my elbows on my knees and allowing my head to collapse in my hands. "Seriously, Heather, are you okay?" Jason asked. For a brief second, I wanted to lift my head and stare at him. That couldn't possibly be concern I detected in his voice, could it? "Yeah, I'm fine," I snapped. Biting my lip, I added in a slightly gentler tone, "Look, I just need some time alone, alright?" Jason paused for a moment before quickly shrugging and returning to his normal self. "Yeah, whatever. I'll be in the Tech room on the phone with the insane asylum if you need me." As soon as I heard the door clang shut, I released a much-needed sigh, staring at the ground. "Alright, Prance, what do you do now?" "Prance? Is he gone?" I jumped up, startled, and began looking around, heart racing. "Gatomon? Is that you?" Scratching noises diverted my attention to the stage where the digimon had crawled out from underneath, brushing the dust off her gloves. And as much as I still despised her, at that moment, she could have been an angel. "Gatomon! What are you doing here?" Her eyes swiveled up to meet mine. "What do you think?" she snarled in her normal authoritative tone. "Haven't you-" "Well, if you're here, that means that Kyra must be here, too!" I exclaimed excitedly. "Where is she? Is she hiding under the stage, too? Is she-" "Prance," Gatomon interrupted, her voice calm and quiet. "Kyra isn't here." I stared at her, not comprehending her words. "What? What do you mean 'she's not here'?" "I'm telling you, she's not here," Gatomon repeated firmly. "While you were knocked out, I tried looking around this place for her, but. I couldn't find her." "Well, where is she, then!?" I yelled. "What makes you think I know?" she shouted defensively. "Weren't you the one who was with her when I was facing down Sirius? You were next to her!" "Of course I was! But when that blinding light appeared, I-" I paused for a moment, looking at her curiously. "What are you talking about?" Gatomon stared at me, appearing somewhat shocked. "What do you mean 'what am I talking about'? You can't seriously tell me you didn't see that bright white light that appeared right before we." My clueless expression must have triggered something in her mind, cause she paused and said softly, "You mean you really don't know?" I shook my head. "The last thing I remember was the flames and fire and Sirius about to attack again. Then, I woke up here." Gatomon studied me for a moment, deciding what to do, before she turned to hop neatly on the stage and sit down. Silently, I joined her. "Well, just to let you know, Kyra fainted a little after the whole fire thing. She said something about you finally doing it before she was out cold. I, on the other hand, was watching the whole thing. I didn't really hear much, but I saw enough. After Sirius started running toward you, I was about to get up and try to help out when this really bright light kind of exploded in the sky, and drowned out everything. I couldn't see a thing. When I could see again, I was here, alone. Neither you nor Kyra were anywhere in sight. So I started looking around the place to see if I could find anything. A few minutes later, I saw the light again, and next thing I knew, you were falling from the light to the stage. I couldn't tell at first whether you alive or dead, but as I started off to go check, the door opened and that fat kid walked out. So I hid." Stopping, she looked up at me for my reaction. With none to give, I merely sighed, sinking my head into my hands once again. "So what you're telling me is that some light swooped us here, and yet we still have no idea where Kyra is." "Unfortunately," Gatomon agreed quietly. "I mean, for all we know, she could have been left back there alone with Sirius, already pissed off as it was." Gatomon nodded glumly. "And even if she did somehow manage to get swept up in that light and get carried someplace else, she wouldn't be able to hardly move, much less defend herself if anything were to happen." "Great. This is just one big mess we've gotten ourselves into, isn't it?" I muttered angrily. Gatomon sighed, clenching her teeth. "But we can't give up now. You can't give up." "Who says I was giving up?" I asked, looking at her suspiciously. She stared back at me. "No one had to. Your tone alone was enough to convince me." "Well, can I help it if I just a little bit disappointed? Maybe even a little depressed? Kyra's stuck who knows where, all alone, and completely weakened. Sirius'll be out on a rampage searching for us, no doubt with Rastal and Deesum at his back, too. We, on the other hand, are stuck here with no way of finding out where or how Kyra is, and I'm stuck with a power I don't even know how to use, yet, much less defend us with! You really think I can seriously take this and still be all happy-go-lucky?" "Of course not!" she snapped. "You don't think I'm as upset about all this as you are? But if we want to be able to help Kyra, no matter where she is or in what condition she may be in, we have to push those feelings aside and try doing something about it." "Like what?" I asked dryly. "You want us to wish on a shooting star for her to come here?" At this comment, Gatomon rolled her eyes and stood up, leaping off the stage and walking towards the big, black double doors that lead to the back stage. "That big fat dork was right. You are an idiot." "Say what!?" I exclaimed, leaping to my feet. Gatomon stopped and twisted around to look at me. "Would you just keep your fur on and think for a second? We're in your world, remember? The transitional place between worlds?" "I knew that," I muttered defensively. Gatomon, ignoring my comment, instead turned back to the door. "Whatever. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be somewhere where I can be a little more useful." "But where, though?" I asked. "Which world are we going to go to next? And how do we know Kyra will be there?" "I don't exactly know how we'll find Kyra," Gatomon replied, walking forward and placing her paws on the door handles. "But, I do know where we can go." Pulling the door open, I was no longer surprised to find the two of us looking down at a dense, shadowy forest. Once again, the door opened above ground like it did in Mr. Carr's class (ugh, bad memories!), but thankfully, not nearly as high. "Well, let's go, then," I said, striding forward. "Wait a second," Gatomon commanded, pulling on my tail. "Hey, that hurt!" I exclaimed, spinning around to face her, tail hugged to my chest. "How would you like it if I pulled on your tail?" "You couldn't catch it if you tried," Gatomon replied dryly as she turned around. Bet I could, I thought sinisterly, eyes on her white and purple striped tail. Aloud, I said, "What are you waiting for?" Ignoring my question, she instead replied, "Before you had showed up, I was looking around this place for you and Kyra. Obviously, I didn't find either of you, but I did find something else." Her words struck my curiosity, and I asked, "What?" Gatomon raised a claw at the door to the Tech room. "Look in there and see if that guy's in there." Obeying, I glanced in the windows. Through the thick glass, I took in the familiar sight on the crowded desk, shelves of paint cans, wooden worktable, and random pieces of wood, fabric, and half finished props scattered across the floor. In the back was a set of doors leading to outside, where sunlight streamed through the window. Jason, however, was nowhere in sight. "He's gone. Must have gone outside for something." "Good. Now, open the door." Still confused, I did as she instructed. Like the first time in my room when I had expected to see my dimly lit hallway, I had expected to see the same thing I saw through the window- the Tech room. Of course, also like in my room, what I had expected to see was not what I saw. Again, it was another opening into another world, however this one looked down into a large, sapphire blue lake. I could also make out trees scattered across its banks on the far bank. I blinked and slowly turned back towards the closed doors, cautiously leaning forward to grasp the handle and crack the door open, peeking through. Sure enough, the same view of dense forestation was there. "Two portals?" I said aloud, stunned. "I don't get it. How come we never saw more than one before?" "Duh!" Gatomon replied crossly, rolling her eyes. "We never exactly took the time to look, now, did we?" Suppressing the urge to yell 'shut up,' I instead turned towards her and asked calmly, "Okay, then, which one leads where? And which one do we take?" Gatomon shrugged. "Don't know. But I suppose it doesn't matter which one we take for now. Kyra's just as likely to be in one as the other, and then again, she's just as likely to not be in either." "True, but which one to choose? What, do we do eenie-meenie-meinie-mo?" Gatomon stared at me for a moment, probably thinking of some tremendous insult to throw at me after than one, but, to my surprise, she instead pointed to the Tech door. "I say that one. I'm not necessarily partial to water, but landing in water's a heck of a lot better than trying to land from a much higher elevation into a bunch of trees." At this, I couldn't help but smirk. "What's the matter, wittle kitty cat afwaid of da watah?" The digimon glared venomously at me, holding out her claws menacingly. "Say that again, and I'll turn you into shish-ka-bobs!" she hissed. Before I could respond, she spun around and leaped head first into the portal. I grinned as I watched her plummet into the water, reemerging seconds later, shivering from head to tail. "Heh, serves you right, jerk," I muttered, stepping forward to jump in myself. "Oh, Heather!" Suddenly, I went cold. My feelings went numb as I recognized the voice and spun around. The speaker was a tall boy, about seventeen years old, with shaggy black hair and sparkling green eyes. The smile that was normally planted on his face was replaced by a shocked expression, which he quickly tried to mask. "A-adam!?" I stuttered as he said, rushing his words, "What are you doing here?" "W-what do you mean, 'what am I doing here'? I m-mean, aren't I supposed to be here?" Adam's cheeks lightly flushed as he tried to continue. "Well, yeah, I know that, but. well, I thought you were out on the stage and. well, I didn't think you'd be in here, and." Okay, now I was getting confused. Here was Adam, my boyfriend, someone I really felt glad to see right now, and he was surprised to see me here? I vaguely was able to put two and two together as I asked cautiously, "Wait, you mean. you were hoping I wasn't in here?" "No, no! I was just. surprised, that's all! Honest," he added hopefully. "Adam, I don't-" "Uh, sorry, Heather, but I gotta go," he said quickly as he sped past me, keeping his head down. I followed his movements with my eyes until he opened the stage door that had led to the forested area when I opened it. Sure enough, when he pulled on the handle, the animated scene was the same, but apparently, he didn't notice for he merely walked straight in, not falling as I would have, but simply passing through it. For the next few seconds, I stood there, staring at the blank space he had previously occupied, completely mystified. I mean, what exactly just happened, there? Was anyone going to tell me? "Prance! What the heck are you waiting for!? An invitation?" Gatomon's obnoxious voice thankfully pulled me out of my trance, and I turned back to the portal. I had more important things to deal with. I couldn't afford to take a step into the mind of a guy to try to understand their ways. even if the guy was my boyfriend. Pushing the thought to the back of my mind, I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, and leaped out into the portal. Just erase him from your mind, Heather. Don't worry about him. Don't even think about it. A half second after I dived into the water, I was actually glad we had chosen this portal to go through instead of the forest one. The icy cold temperature of the water did the erasing of my mind for me, and at this particular moment, I was extremely grateful. From that height, I had only gone under about ten feet, but the chilly suddenness of the cold kind of took me by surprise and knocked the breath out of me, so by the time I had surfaced, my lungs were gasping for air. "Gatomon, where are you?" I called, eyes scanned the banks. I was easily able to spot her white coat on the shore to my right, only about a hundred feet away. But for me, in this freezing cold water, that was unfortunately a hundred feet too much. So, taking another deep breath, I dunked my head under the water and, with my eyes open, began swimming towards the shore. Surprisingly, I was pretty quick in the water with my tail to use as both a rudder and an extra limb to propel me forward. It was no surprise that I was soon laying on the dry (well, used-to-be-dry) beach, dripping wet, not even a minute later. "If you ask me," I muttered between chattering teeth, eyes closed with exhaustion, "that lake. is in major need. of temperature controls." "Stop your whining," Gatomon snapped bitterly. I lazily opened one eye and rolled it around to stare at her. "Easy for you to say! The only fur I have is on my ears and tail while you've got a nice little coat over your entire body!" The digimon rolled her eyes, but apparently couldn't think of any comment to throw back for she instantly changed the subject, looking around the surrounding area. "Well, at least we're back in the Digital World, that much I know." "Finally," I exclaimed relieved, "some good news!" "Yeah, good news until we run into Matt, that is," Gatomon replied dryly. "Why do you say that?" "Are you kidding?" she retorted, staring at me like I was a dumb infant. "Do you have any idea what he'll do to us if he finds out what happened to Kyra? No Dark Master would be able to compete with the torture he'll pour on us!" "But I thought TK told me he didn't think of her as a girlfriend like that?" "No, but he did tell you they've been best friends forever, closer than brother and sister, right?" "Yeah, so?" "Think, Dimwit! If he were to lose a girlfriend, he'd be upset, but eventually, he'd get another one. You can't do that with sisters. He'll fry us, for sure!" she added, looking, to my surprise, rather uncomfortable as she said it. Breathing out a sigh, I slowly closed my eyes again. "Great, so not only do we have to avoid Rastal, Deesum and Sirius, but we also have to avoid Matt, too. It's pretty much death either way," I moaned. "Pretty much," she agreed. Then, she started going off on something else, but I wasn't exactly paying attention. All the excitement from the day added with the fact that my eyes were already closed could only lead to one thing- time for a catnap.  
  
Oh no, not again. There I was again, standing in that same pool of darkness. Somewhere, I heard a drop of water, and the ground below me began to ripple like the surface of a lake or pool. I stood there, standing down at my reflection that looked back up at me with the same blank expression. It is your destiny, Prance. Not this voice again, I thought. Out loud, I said, What do you want with me? You are alone. Stop saying that! But you are. No. no I'm not! I'm going to find Kyra, I am! You are alone and disconnected. What are you talking about? What do you mean disconnected? You cannot be connected alone. What? I don't under- You cannot be alone. Suddenly, I blinked. Did it just. move? Surprised, I leaned closer to the surface I stood on and stared down at my reflection. Did you- You cannot be alone, my reflection replied to my amazement. I gasped, stunned, whispering, Then it was you! You cannot be alone, or you will perish. But I don't get it, I repeated, pleading down at. myself. What do you mean 'I can't be alone?' How am I alone? You cannot be alone, or this, she added, waving her hand over the darkness, will surely become your destiny. But how am I alone? You're not answering me! . Hello? Answer me! . Answer me!  
  
My eyes opened with a start. The first thing, however, to come to sight were a pair of dark brown eyes. directly in my face. "Ahh! Tai!" I screamed, on my feet and in the air within the hair of a second, leaping back about ten feet. "What the heck are you doing?" "I told you not to do that," TK said scoldingly. Behind him, Augumon, Patamon and Gabumon sat giggling and snickering. Tai grinned, rubbing the back of his head nervously as red slowly began to creep up his cheeks. "S-sorry. I was.. um, I was just-" "What are you guys doing here?" I asked, petting my raised tail hairs back into place. "Gatomon told us about what happened to Kyra," Augumon said. I glanced up at him, warily. "What exactly did she say about it?" "You remember," she spoke up, leaping into view on the branch above me. "You know how she fought that rogue creature from another dimension on her own and never came back?" "Oh, yeah, duh," I muttered. "But, wait a second," I added, glancing nervously at Gabumon. "Don't worry," he assured me, "Matt doesn't know a thing. And I'll make sure he doesn't." "Thanks," I said, unable to resist the smallest smile. Man, if only Kyra were here to see how much trouble we were going through to make sure Matt doesn't find out. She'd be squealing louder than a love struck mouse. "What are you smiling about?" Gatomon asked. "Nothing," I replied. "Absolutely nothing." "So what do we do?" TK asked. "She's out there, totally beat up, and we have no way of helping her out?" "We have to remember, though," Tai added hopefully, "my cuz has been living almost her entire life here in the Digital World. If anyone was better suit for handling this, its her." "That's true, Tai," Gatomon replied, "but still, she's really hurt. No matter what you say, it's only so long she can handle in her condition." "So are you saying it's hopeless?" Patamon asked. "No, of course not!" Gatomon snapped angrily. "We're just. running out of ideas," I muttered. "Yeah, well here's one for ya," Tai exclaimed, leaping forward, "Let's stop yapping and start looking!" Gatomon and I stared at him, allowing him to pause to look back at us and register our blank expressions through his mind. "That's your brilliant idea?" Gatomon asked expectantly. "Hey! I never said it was a brilliant one!" he replied defensively. "Besides, you said you were running out of ideas, and I just gave you one. I didn't hear a thing about what kind of idea, just that you needed one." "He's got a point," TK agreed, grinning. I exchanged patient glances with Gatomon before sighing. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to try." "Right!" Tai exclaimed excitedly. "Now, to cover more ground, I think it's a good idea that we split up, so I can look around one area with Pra-" "Now that is a good idea," Gatomon said. "TK, you go with Patamon and Gabumon and search around the mountains. Tai, you and Augumon look for her by the ocean. Me and Prance will stay here in the forest and search." While TK and the others nodded, Tai's jaw dropped, looking quite deflated. "But. but I wanted to go with." "Come on, Tai," TK said, grabbing his arm. "You can save your flirting for later." "But TK!!!" I stared after the two of them as they disappeared behind the trees. "What was that all about?" "Beats me," Gatomon replied, shrugging. "Oh well," I murmured, turning to the digimon. "Actually, now that we're alone, I have a question for you." Gatomon stared at me suspiciously. "What?" "Do you think you could show me the spot where you saw Sirius before?" I asked. "I wanna see what he was doing there." The digimon blinked, tilting her head curiously. "What do you mean? He was looking for you, wasn't he?" "Yeah, probably," I said, "but then again, if we're going to find Kyra, we can't just look anywhere, like the others are doing. We don't have the time for that. We only have until the end of the day. I figure our best bet might be wherever he was snooping around." "Makes sense, I suppose," she agreed, turning to walk. Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder at me and smirked, "Makes sense for you, that is." Oh boy, here we go again, I thought as I felt a sweat drop begin to roll down the back of my head. For a moment there, I actually thought we might have been beginning to get along.  
  
It was late afternoon. The sun was slowly lowering. Too bad I couldn't say the same thing for the temperature. My feet sweated horribly in the shoes Kyra gave me, and my skin was beginning to grow itchy. My fur was dampened from the humidity and my ears drooped. So, basically, I was hot, sweaty, tired, my feet hurt, and yet, we were STILL WALKING!!! "Gatomon, are we there yet?" I whined, wiping my brow once again as I trudged on. Muttering something to herself, she glanced back at me from over her shoulder and yelled patiently, "Chill out, already. We'll get there when we get there." I moaned. "Please, don't use the expression 'chill out'. It's only making me dream of that lake." The digimon rolled her eyes and returned to walking, apparently fed up with me. Technically, I wouldn't blame her. But right now, I wasn't in the mood to sympathize with anyone but myself. Luckily, however, minutes later (but to me, it felt like weeks), she stopped and pointed a large dark claw at a wooded area to her right. "There it is," she announced. "The first time I saw Sirius, it was over there." Glancing at the area at which she pointed, I asked, "Are you sure?" The glare she gave in return confirmed her answer. "Okay, then," I replied, glad to be traipsing through the cool shade, "I guess that we can start looking." Again, I barely heard Gatomon muttered something under her breath before joining me. I ignored her and began scanning the ground for footprints. "So, Prance, exactly what are we looking for again?" Gatomon called out. "Anything, I suppose," I replied, eyes not lifting. "Anything that looks like Sirius might be interested in." "How would I know?" she asked haughtily. "Do I look like a wolf-guy to you?" I respectfully held back a giggle. "Trust me, you don't want me to answer that." Silence followed. I could only imagine the scowl she was throwing towards my turned back. Then, to my surprise, she spoke, her voice completely absent of the malice I had expected. "Not that I'm a wolf or anything, but would this count as interesting?" Curious, I slowly picked my way through the underbrush to where she was standing and looked down. Scattered across the ground were tiny flecks of white. "I'd say they're pretty interesting to me," I replied, kneeling to scoop some up in my hand. "What do you think they are?" "How the heck should I know?" she hissed warily. "Calm down, I didn't mean anything by it. I only wanted to know what you thought it was. You're a heck of a lot more familiar with the Digital World and stuff from it than I am." Apparently deciding this was a sufficient answer, she shrugged in a less angry manner. "Don't know. Doesn't look like anything I've ever seen. Sand, maybe? Or crystal?" Glancing at her, I tilted my head to one side in curiosity. "You said you've been with Kyra sometimes when she does her 'other dimension' thing, right? Do you think it could be from another dimension, perhaps?" Again, she shrugged. "Don't know. It could be, I guess." "Oh well," I replied, picking out the specs from my hand and dropping them in my pocket. "I guess there'd be no harm in hanging onto them, then." Dusting my hands off, I stood and stretched. "So what do we do, now?" Gatomon asked, looking around. "It doesn't look like Kyra's been around here at all. Or anyone else, for that matter." I paused before answering, taking a long last look at the area and the setting sun. "I guess we should try to get some rest. At the very least, we know Kyra will be back in our world, waiting for us. I'm sure finding her there will be a lot easier than finding her here." Gatomon cringed, not replying. She didn't have to. I knew exactly what she was thinking. If she made it away from Sirius alive.  
  
As I've mentioned before, since I became Prance, I've found myself liking trees more and more. And, no surprise, I also found myself quite comfortable that night in the Digital World as I slept on a sturdy branch. Even though I was close to thirty feet above the ground, I slept peacefully with no fear at all. So you can imagine my disappointment when I woke up on the cement floor back at school. To me, cement can't compare to the comfort and security I felt in the tree. Yawning, I stretched and sat up, flexing my tail as I rubbed my eyes. Opening one eye tentatively, I saw I had been lying luxuriously at the top of stairs in the center of the campus, overlooking the quad where hundreds of students milled around. "Gatomon? You here?" "Right here," she replied, dropping down from the skylight above me. "Glad to see you've finally woken up." I stood up and brushed the dirt from my pants. "Glad to see that cheerful, friendly spirit of yours," I said dryly. "What time is it?" "According to the big clock up there," she began, pointing up at the metal work clock hanging in front of the building, "It's 12:25." I nodded, sighing. "Yeah, and that thing's always about fifteen minutes slow so that means it's about 12:40, which means the middle of lunch." Looking up at me, Gatomon asked seriously, "Do you really think we can find Kyra in all this?" I bit my tongue, resisting the temptation to add, "If she's here at all," and instead looked out at the crowd. "We have to. I mean, it can't be that hard, can it? The campus isn't that big, and we have a little over twenty minutes. Besides, it's not like she'll go off campus for a Taco Bell bean burrito at a time like this." Gatomon couldn't resist. She smirked. "Are you sure about that?" I grinned. "Not really, but we've gotta hope anyway." With that, she climbed onto my shoulders and I made my way down the stairs. "Where do we head first?" she asked as I strode purposefully through the quad. "The most logical place to look would be the nurse's office. If she were still as banged up as I remember, then she couldn't exactly walk around through the school without attracting attention." "If she could walk at all," Gatomon pointed out. "Exactly. So, the nurse's office will be the first place to check. After that, I'd think about the library, the Tech room, or the lunch line." "The lunch line?" Gatomon repeated skeptically. I shook my head. "Don't even ask, trust me. You haven't seen her when she's been deprived of her beloved chili cheese fries. She can get pretty dangerous." The digimon rolled her eyes, smirking. Reaching the front office, I paused, a thought suddenly striking me. "Gatomon, you had better stay here. I don't think we'd get very far in there if the staff thought I was bringing in a pet cat." Gatomon snorted but jumped off, sulking toward the bushes. "Hmph, you're one to talk. You're practically a pet yourself!" When she was safely out of sight, I opened the door and walked inside, making my way past the water fountain towards the back of the room where a blue sign said in bold, white letters "NURSE". Peeking my head in, I cautiously looked around. "Nice ears." I looked up, startled. A guy that looked a little older than me sat in a chair next to the empty desk. He had blonde, spiked hair and his blue eyes looked me up and down curiously, making the hair on my tail rise. "Hate to break it to ya, but Halloween is over for this year," he said mockingly. Realizing he saw my tail and ears as costume accessories, my apprehension was replaced by irritation and I slowly felt my nails grow the slightest bit longer. I pressed m ears against my head instinctively. "Shut up," I spat. The stranger laughed. "What's the matter, kitty cat? Gonna bite me?" Unintentionally, I felt that spark inside me begin to swell up again. "Watch it, or I'll burn ya," I replied in a low, threatening tone. He grinned, clearly not intimidated. "Ooh, I'm really scared." A tiny flame flicked across my arm before dissolving into my skin once again- a sign that I was getting really ticked off. Luckily, (for the jerk, that is) before I had the opportunity to say anything further, another voice behind me nearly made me jump on top of the file cabinet. "May I help you?" Spinning around, I breathed out a relieved breath as the sight of the short, brown-haired nurse filled my view. With gold-rimmed glasses hanging down the bridge of her nose, she looked at me expectantly, tapping her pen against her clipboard. "Oh, um, hi," I stammered. "I actually came to see if a friend of mine were in here." She stared at me, examining my ears and tail briefly before turning to her clipboard and flipping through several sheets. "Name, please." "Ky- . Lacey!" Mentally, I scolded myself. Stupid move! "I'm sorry, her name is Lacey." To my relief, the nurse did not eye me suspiciously, but instead scanned through the names on her list, lifting a page once to read through the second list. After about ten seconds, she flipped all the pages back and tucked the clipboard under her arm. "I'm sorry, but no one under the name 'Lacey' has come in today. Would you like me to deliver a message should she come in later?" "No, that's alright," I said, somewhat disappointed. "Thank you, though." Feeling a little deflated, I walked out of the nurse's office. The deflation, however, was quickly replaced by anger when I heard from behind me, "See ya, cat-freak!" As I walked back outside, I seriously considered running back in there and turning the guy into an ash tray when Gatomon jumped out, looking up at me. "She wasn't in there, then?" "Nope," I replied, shaking my head. "We'll just have to keep looking, I guess." "Yeah, but that's," she waved her gloved paw at the mass across the quad, "a lot of people to look through. And according to the clock, we only have a little more than fifteen minutes left." I sighed, knowing she was right. "Well, I guess we could split up. We'd cover more of the school that way." Nodding, Gatomon glanced up at me. "Why do we need to find her before lunch ends, anyway? Wouldn't it be easier to look after lunch when everybody's in class?" I pointed at the yellow-vested woman sitting in a golf cart, eyes watching the students carefully. "Cause of them. if they catch you wandering around, they get suspicious, and they'll stop you. It's like highway patrol, only they don't give out detentions." Gatomon sighed. "I guess we have no other choice, then. Well." "Hey, Heather!" As I looked up, I heard the bushes beside me rustle- Gatomon leaping into them for cover. The digimon was a lot smarter than I would have admitted. The voice that spoke was one of two. She was a short, Asian girl with black hair and dark brown eyes. In her hands she carried a bright red book with the words Bon Voyage: French one printed on the cover and wore a pleasant smile. Her companion was only slightly taller due to the tall sandals she wore and was also Asian, but only vaguely more slender with a box of French fries in one hand and three fries in the other. I smiled. "Hi, Mei. Hi, Geneva." "Hello, there," Mei replied placidly, adjusting her books to fit in the crook of her arm. "Howdy," added Geneva, finishing off the fries in her hand. "Whatcha up to?" "Nothing, really," I lied. "How about you?" "Just walking around," Mei said. "Yeah, that's how bored we are. With nothing else to do to occupy our last few minutes of lunch but walking around." I nodded, hoping they weren't expecting to talk for too long. Suddenly, I felt something jab my leg and I looked down. Through the leaves of the bushes, I could see Gatomon's eyes, staring up at me. What does she want now? I thought as I watched her continue to stare at me. Randomly, she rolled her eyes and carefully stuck out a claw, stretching it out to point in front of me. Glancing to see what she was referring to, all I saw were Mei and Geneva, watching me curiously. Looking back at her, her eyes locked onto mine again as if holding some hidden meaning. Scrunching my forehead, I thought about what she could possibly be trying to say. "Are you okay?" Mei asked. Geneva giggled. "Yeah, you look like you need some. heh, help." My eyes widened. It suddenly clicked. "Geneva!" Mei exclaimed, unable to resist grinning. "That wasn't very nice." I spun around excitedly. Geneva smiled. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. It was just a joke." Ignoring the apology, I instead replied, "Actually, I could use some help." Both girls blinked. "Y-you could?" Geneva repeated. I chuckled. "Not that kind of help." "Ohh," they replied in unison, looking somewhat relieved. "What kind of help do you need, then?" Mei asked. I glanced back at Gatomon only to receive an affirming nod. "I was wondering if you could help my find Lacey." "Find Lacey? Why?" Geneva asked. "It's kind of important," I explained, careful not to say too much. "There's something really important I have to tell her. a message I have to give her." "Ooh, a message?" Geneva replied, interested. "Is it from a guy?" I bit my lip, refusing to laugh. "Um. yeah. But, if I want to tell her, I have to find her before lunch is over. Do you think you could help me?" "Absolutely," Mei said, nodding. "Who's the guy? Who's the guy?" Geneva asked excitedly. "I'll tell you after you find her," I said quickly. "Just go find her." Knowing full and well that this specific type of message would subtly encourage them to look quickly, I watched with satisfaction as the two Asians sped away, darting into the adjoining building. "It's about time," Gatomon exclaimed, jumping out. "I thought I was going to have to stare and point for the rest of lunch!" Spinning around, I faced her, looking at the digimon seriously. "Look, when we eventually do find Kyra, do not tell her what I just told Mei and Geneva, got it?" "Why? Is it true?" "Of course not!" I exclaimed. "But if she were to ever find out I used that particular line to get Mei and Geneva to help me, she'd skewer me alive!" "How come?" I rolled my eyes, sighing. "Do I look like I know? Anyway, we have to start looking. Now, you'd probably be better off looking around the outskirts of the campus, mainly because there are lots of walkways around the school and you won't be seen that easily. If Mei and Geneva look in the 100 building and in the Band room, then I'll cover the rest. Come find me if you find Kyra, kay?" "Sure," she replied, nodding quickly before spinning around and leaping onto the roof. Watching her bound off, I instantly spun on my heel and began jogging through the quad, looking for a place to start my search. Starting in the back of the campus toward the tennis courts, I backtracked my way through, weaving in and out of classrooms and stopping anybody I knew to ask if they had seen Lacey. Unfortunately, no one had. When I found myself back at the quad, I glanced up at the clock. 1:09, which, translated, meant 12:54. Lunch ended at 1:01. Only 7 minutes to go. Picking up the pace, I made my way to the other side of the school where about a fifth of the school's population sat among the lunch tables and pep rally stage in front of the cafeteria lines and snack bar. Slowly, I picked my way through the crowds, pausing by people I recognized, and even went through the lines despite the irritated looks the lunch ladies gave me when the discovered I wasn't buying anything. Quickly running out of hope, I ran back to the quad, only to run into Mei and Geneva again. "Hey, did you guys find her?" I asked hopefully. My spirits were flattened when they both shook their heads, Geneva almost looking more disappointed then I probably did. "Sorry," Mei added. "No, it's okay," I replied, trying to sound cheerful. "You tried." Feeling very tired, I turned and walked, smiling only faintly when I heard Geneva mutter, "And we never got to find out who the guy was!" We have to find her, I thought. I have to. I don't how much more of this I can handle without her. "Prance! Prance!" I looked up to find Gatomon jumping from the rooftop to the ground in front of me. Ignoring the stares and whispering of the people around us, I asked urgently, "Well? Did you find her?" Gatomon shook her head, apparently catching her breath. "No. I didn't find her." "Then why did you call me so urgently?" I demanded, irritated. To my astonishment, she completely ignored the irritation and instead replied, "I didn't find her. but you'll never believe who I did find!" Surprised, I was about to ask her to continue when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning, I could only gasp at the figure that stood before me. Gatomon wasn't kidding. I didn't believe it. 


	10. Flaming Tutorial 101

Chapter 10:  
Flaming Tutorial, 101  
  
"T RUNKS!?!" The purple-haired boy grinned sheepishly, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. I blinked, completely shocked. I knew I probably looked strange with my eyes bulging and my jaw hanging open, but at the moment, it was all I could really do. "What the hell are you d-doing here? How the hell did you g-get here?" I stammered, amazed. Now, even more people were staring, as much from my exclamation as Gatomon and Trunks's appearance. He rubbed the back of his head shyly, looking down at the ground as he shuffled his feet. "Through the. um, portal thingy." Still stunned, I was prepared to fire another round of questions at him when Gatomon held up her paw, stopping me. "Shut up for a moment. Let him finish." Turning to Trunks, she added, "Tell her what you told me." As if just remembering, Trunks began speaking in a more excited manner. "Oh! That's right! Kyra's waiting for you!" Heh, and to think, I didn't think I could get any more surprised. "Gawk later," Gatomon commanded, jumping to Trunks's shoulders. "He'll explain on the way." Finally shutting my gaping jaw, I merely nodded numbly and followed suit. "When I found her," he explained, "she was really beat up. Badly. She told me it was from battling with Sirius." Gatomon nodding, confirming the statement. "Did you take her to Dende." He nodded. "Yep, but he was unable to fix her wing all the way. I didn't quite understand why, but then again, I never stopped to ask him why. At least she looked a lot better than when she first appeared through that big ball of white light." "White light?" I repeated, intrigued. "Are you positive it was white?" "I'm pretty sure. It was kind of bright, so I couldn't really tell, but it looked white to me." "That must have been the same light that grabbed us," Gatomon said, glancing down at me. I nodded, and then turned back to Trunks. "Okay, go on." "Well, since her wing wasn't completely fixed, she had to wear it in a sling. Goku had insisted she take a nap since she was pretty worn out, and the next thing we knew, she was completely conked out." I smirked. "Sounds like her." Trunks smiled. "Yeah, well, I opened the door once just to check on her when I saw the light again and next thing I knew, we were here." Gatomon rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Caught you by surprise and completely unexpectedly, right?" Trunks looked at her. "No, not really." We both stared at him, confused. Seeing this, he proceeding with explaining. "Well, what I mean is that sure it caught me by surprise, but she had already explained it all to me before, so it wasn't really that bad." "Wait a minute," I said, "When did she explain what to you?" "My question exactly," Gatomon added. Trunks looked back and forth between the digimon and me, almost as if her were surprised we didn't know. "Well, back when the three of you first came, she told me that she wasn't really the Kyra I knew, and that the three of you were kind of bouncing between different worlds. She couldn't really explain the rest because she didn't quite understand it, but I didn't really mind. She didn't tell you?" I shook my head, thinking to myself, And to think, I thought she was off playing her role as his girlfriend. "No, she didn't," Gatomon replied, just as surprised as I was. She exchanged knowing glances with me and I nodded. We were definitely going to have a little talk with her. "So where is she now?" I asked casually. "Up there," he replied, pointing. Gatomon looked up and her moaned. "Are you kidding? She was there the entire time?" As I glanced up, my thoughts echoed her words, for it was the same building we woke in, the very same building, which he pointed at. "She's on top of the roof." Rolling my eyes, we decided to walk to the back of the building where no one would see us, and stealthily leapt onto the roof. However, before I could even straighten myself from the landing, I was instantly flung to the ground, hard. "Prance! It's really you! I can't believe it! It feels like it's been forever!" I coughed, gasping for air while trying to pry the arms off my neck. "Kyra, would you chill out? You're a lot stronger than you look, you know!" In the end, it took both Gatomon and Trunks to pull her off of me. Staggering to my feet, I took long, deep breaths. "Geez, what are you trying to do, kill me?" Kyra grinned sheepishly. "Aw, come on. I was just glad to see ya!" I rolled my eyes. "Oh, good, that makes me feel a whole lot better, cause for a second there, I thought you were about to assassinate me." Gatomon eyed Kyra, smirking. "Guess that Dende guy did a decent job on you, then." Kyra nodded energetically. "Yep, see?" she added, pointing to the single left wing exposed, wrapped comfortably in white bandages. "I wanted to go down there and help Trunks look for you, but Dende said I couldn't pull my wing back in for a few more days, and I couldn't exactly walk around school with it out, so I was stuck up here. You have noooo idea how boring it was up here, either!" I rubbed my tail vigorously. "That explains the tackling." "Enough small talk," Gatomon snapped, crossing her arms. "I wanna know what happened with Sirius! How on earth did you make it?" Kyra smiled, and opened her mouth to speak, but quickly shut it again, looking around. "Okay, but can we get outta here, first?" "Oh, sure," I replied, glancing down at Gatomon. "Did you find any portals?" "Two," she replied, "One to one of those pokemon centers going into the girls bathroom, and one just over a little house that looks like an igloo that's in a portable on the side of the school." Kyra perked up. "That sounds like Goku's house. We should probably head there." Glancing at me, she added, More for the sake of Trunks than anything. Think of how it would look if he were to walk into a girls bathroom. I stifled a chuckle as we turned and followed the digimon, hopping across the roofs rather than walking around on the ground. The journey was short, for the portables we were looking for were only on the basketball courts, located behind the gym, which was next to the building we were on. After making sure no one was around, we jumped to the blacktop and followed the digimon to the yellowed portable buildings, weaving our way through them until we arrived at one in the center. "That door," she said, pointing. Nodding, I walked forward and placed my hand on the doorknob, turning and pulling. Sure enough, there was the house she spoke of. I glanced back at Kyra. "Are you positive this is Goku's house?" Walking to my side, she peered inside and smiled, nodding. "Yep." "Okay, then, let's go," I said promptly, walking through. Behind me, the other three followed. Turning, I was about to ask what to do next, but paused as I noticed Kyra rubbing her left shoulder. "Are you okay?" I asked. "Do you need to sit down?" Kyra shook her head, smiling. "Nah, I'm fine. Besides, we need to start heading to Kami's lookout. Goku'll kill me if he thinks I'm overworking myself. which I'm not, by the way!" she added emphatically. I still didn't buy it. "Well, if your wing hurts, maybe we should rest a while before starting off. I mean, how far away is it?" "A little over fifty miles," Trunks replied. "Fifty miles!" Gatomon exclaimed, appearing overwhelmed. I, myself, was about to agree when I paused, noticing a change in Kyra's expression from cheerful to smug. I narrowed my eyes. "Okay, what are you looking so cocky about?" She turned to me and grinned. "Oh, nothing." I raised an eyebrow. "Need I repeat your ever favorite quote, dear Kyra?" "Really, it's not that big," she replied, sneaking a glance at Trunks who merely smiled, shaking his head. "I just happened to pick up a handy little trick from Trunks while I was here before." "A little trick?" I repeated sarcastically. Her eyes sparkled fiercely. "Come on, you didn't think I'd seriously sit around on my butt all day, did you?" Gatomon stared accusingly at her. "No, not really, but with you in your condition, we would have hoped for it, anyway." "What condition?" Kyra exclaimed heatedly. "I'm fine! Dende has already healed me! Just because I have this thing messed up," she hissed, pointing at her bandaged sling, "doesn't mean out of commission, yet!" "Alright, alright, don't get yourself worked up," I said calmly. "If you want to show off your trick, then go ahead and show off." Kyra smiled, nodding and holding her right hand up. "Very well, then." The next few moments were somewhat confusing. I vaguely remember hearing a snapping sound of what I assumed were Kyra's fingers, but the next instant I blinked, and we were suddenly at Kami's lookout. I looked around, amazed, while Gatomon folded her arms and smirked, glancing up at Kyra. "So, you've finally got 'zapping' down," she commented. "Ooh," I said, understanding, "so that's what Matt meant!" Kyra nodded, smiling. "Yep! Trunks helped me with it and a few other things while I've been stuck up here, wasting away like a-" "Ky! What are you doing out of bed?" The four of us whirled around to see Goku storming up to us, adopting for the first time since I've met him an expression of almost paternal anger. He marched up to Kyra who lifted her chin defiantly, trying to look imposing next to the towering figure of her 'brother'. "I got bored sitting in there all day. So what?" "So what? You're supposed to be resting." Laughter exploded from behind him and Krillin started walking toward the group. "Come on, Goku. When was the last time you were hurt and you didn't have Chichi chasing after you to stop training and get back in bed?" "Never, that's when!" Kyra spoke up confidently. I could only look on in amusement as Goku looked back and forth between Kyra and Krillin, looking a lot like a mouse ambushed by a couple of cats. "Well, fine!" he exclaimed indignantly. "Since you all seem to be teaming up against me, anyway." And with that, Goku walked away, sulking like a scolded five-year-old. Throwing a brief smile back at me, Kyra began jogging after him with Krillin walking leisurely behind, still laughing his head off. Trunks could only smile and shake his head. I tilted my own head in curiosity. "What?" "It's just really hard to not imagine her as the real Kyra," he explained, chuckling. "Growing a quick temper was something she had learned from spending a lot of time with Chichi and my mom." I smirked. "Don't worry. No matter who she is or where she is, 100 % full blown temper is always her style." Gatomon nodded in agreement. "Obviously," Trunks replied, walking toward where they had disappeared. I was about to join them when I suddenly paused, watching Trunks closely. Gatomon, noticing my absence, stopped and turned toward me. "What is it, now?" she demanded. "Oh, nothing," I replied thoughtfully. "Just thinking." "About what?" "Well, in reality, Trunks was in love with the real Kyra, right? I was just wondering if he must feel disappointed now that she's kinda gone and our Kyra's replaced her." "Who knows?" Gatomon said, shrugging. "Besides, it's none of our business, anyway." I stood for a moment longer before walking again beside the digimon. "Yeah, I guess so."  
  
After apologies had been made to Goku, the four of us sat around Kyra's room, or rather, the same spare room that we had woken in the last time we were in this world. I sat in a chair flipped backwards, watching Kyra as she settled herself into a comfortable position on the bed. Gatomon sat on the corner of the bed while Trunks stood in the doorway, leaned against the frame, both watching out for anyone passing by and opening an ear to listen. "So?" Gatomon asked after a decent amount of time had passed. "Are you going to tell us what happened or not?" "Yeah, yeah, I know," she replied, crossing her legs one over the other out of habit. I smiled. "Well, basically, the last thing you probably remember was Sirius jumping toward you, ready to attack right after you had burned his hand, right?" We both nodded. "Well, while that happened, Gatomon had started running forward to try to help you out, and the next thing I knew, some bright, twinkling white light appeared out of the sky and kind of swallowed the two of you up." "Yeah, I remember that," I commented. "We both saw it, and Trunks had said you appeared here in the same kind of light." Glancing at him, he nodded his confirmation. "Yeah, well, after that, Sirius pretty much stopped in his tracks." To my surprise, she actually let out a small chuckle. "Hah, he looked kinda funny, just standing there, looking around himself wildly like a monkey." Secretly, I struggled to restrain the laughter that threatened to burst. I could only imagine the wolf's furious reaction had he ever found out he had been called a monkey. "Anyway, after a while of looking around, he finally saw me and started walking toward me." She paused, shivering slightly. "It was creepy. At first, all he did was ask where you had gone. After he finally got the message that I didn't know, he started getting mad cause he didn't get to get rid of you." "Oh, poor little thing," I muttered dryly. "My thoughts exactly. But while he was mad, I did notice he mentioned something about Rastal." My ears perked. "Rastal?" "That other gold wolf?" Gatomon asked. I nodded. "What did he say?" Kyra shook her head. "I'm not sure, exactly. He was kinda muttering to himself, but I definitely heard him say the name Rastal, and something I think about his home. I also thought I heard the word revenge, but I wasn't sure, cause after that, I also could have sworn he said mustard." I rolled my eyes. "Geez, someone needs her ears checked." Her eyes flicked toward me. "Well, sor-ry if I don't exactly have huge ears like you guys do that could hear a pin drop a mile away!" "Just go on with your story," I said nonchalantly. "Right, just change the subject conveniently," she muttered loudly. "Kyra, just get on with it!" Gatomon said impatiently. "Oh, fine!" she exclaimed defensively. "Well, anyway, after he went on like that a while, he finally got fed up with me and held out his hand to." She suddenly grew very quiet, all contempt gone from her voice. She glanced up briefly at me before looking down at her feet tucked under her legs. "Well, you know. but right before he. did anything, the same light came back and grabbed me. But after I woke up, I had pretty much guessed I wasn't in the same place you guys were cause I couldn't see you anywhere." "Where were you?" I asked. "Surprisingly, I was at the movie theater," she replied. "The room itself was empty, though, which was really good since I still had both wings open and one weighed practically a ton, not to mention I practically felt like crap. But I wasn't that far from the exit door, so I crawled toward it, and it ended up being a portal to here. I was barely able to make it through and close the door before I think I fainted. When I woke up again, I was here. Goku found me, apparently, and brought me back to Dende, and that's pretty much it." I nodded, then decided to ask a question that had been on my mind. "So," I began excitedly, "what exactly did you learn while you were up here?" She shrugged. "Like I said, nothing super big. Just small stuff like moving objects and making them appear. I can only do small distances, though, and the zapping only works with places I know really well, otherwise I can only do within about a half a mile radius. But if I practice more, I can make it bigger." "Cool," I said admirably. Ignoring the both of us, Gatomon stood up, arms crossed and her expression serious. "So what do we do, now?" "That's a good question," Kyra agreed, looking at me. "What do we do now?" I sighed, sinking into the chair. "Unfortunately, that's a really good question. Thing is, we know Sirius isn't gonna sit on his lazy tail waiting around for us to coincidentally run into each other again. He's going to be on the hunt, not to mention being completely pissed off due to that little present I left on his hand." "And no matter what you did to it," Gatomon added grimly, "it won't be near enough of an advantage for you two to take him." "I know." "So," Kyra concluded, "we obviously have to stay away from Sirius. That's kind of a given. But what do we do in the meantime?" I sighed again, staring at the ground as I tried to think of a plan. For some reason, something seemed to be tugging at the back of my mind, but I couldn't quite grasp it. Kind of like solving one of those logic puzzles when you think you're stuck but you have these two clues that you know make perfect sense, but you just can't think of what they're trying to say. It was just out of my reach, but yet, at the same time, felt almost obvious. Racking my brain, I quickly ran through all the places we've been through before- the Digital World, where we found those sparks and Gatomon said she saw Sirius, here, where Goku said Rastal and Deesum had been storming, the Cardcaptor world where we first encountered Sirius and Kero said he saw Rastal trap Sakura and Li, and finally the Pokemon world. Suddenly, it hit me. "Hey, I've got an idea." Gatomon and Kyra looked up at me, surprised. Kyra smirked. "Wow, that is a cause for celebration." "Oh, shut up," I replied, not really caring. "But do you remember that town Ash and Misty said we were heading for?" "The town?" Kyra repeated, looking up at the ceiling in thought, tapping her chin. "I'm sure. I remember it had something to do with fortune or fate or something like that." "Destiny town?" Gatomon said, looking at me suspiciously. "Yeah, that was it!" Kyra exclaimed. "So, what about it?" "I say we check it out," I replied. "Think about it. Every other world we've been through has had some sort of interaction between Sirius, Rastal and Deesum except for the Pokemon world. Besides, Destiny town sounds like an interesting place to inspect." Gatomon quirked an eyebrow. "So you're suggesting we go check this place out on the sole reason that it's name sounds interesting?" I briefly thought about my dreams before shrugging. "Let's just say I have a hunch about this one. So what do you say?" Kyra bounced to her feet, grinning. "I say we go for it. It's the only real lead we have, anyway." "Yeah, I guess so," Gatomon admitted reluctantly. Nodding, I glanced up at a clock that stood above the bed. Only three. I sighed. "Okay, so now we have a plan, but what do we do till tonight? We obviously can't go to sleep, now." Kyra's face clouded over in thought as she sank back into the bed, tapping her chin thoughtfully as she stared up at the ceiling. "You could always try training," Gatomon suggested gruffly. "I don't know about you, but I'd certainly feel better if you two didn't rely on luck so much, always hoping something will happen at the last minute. There are only so many times you can rely on luck before it runs out." Kyra brightened, spinning around towards the door. "Hey, maybe Trunks could help you out." The young man shrugged. "I suppose I could." I glanced back and forth between them. "Well, I guess. I mean, I don't think I'll be able to do all that much, but." "Oh, yes you will!" Gatomon exclaimed harshly, suddenly leaping to my side. Baring the long claws of one paw, she clenched them gently around my tail. "You don't have a choice. We are not going to face Sirius or anyone else with you being as weak as you are!" I grabbed the base of my tail and jerked it away from her, flushing and glaring at the digimon at the same time. "Okay, okay, I'll do it!" I hesitated, waiting for her to move further away from me before I added under my breath, "And I am not weak!" I twirled around and marched past Kyra and Trunks through the door before she could respond. Kyra jogged behind me. "Aw, come on, don't be so mad. This'll be fun! She's just trying to get on your nerves so that you'll want to get stronger. I think it's just her way of showing she has confidence in you." "Yeah right!" was the flat answer coming from back inside the room. A sweatdrop rolled down both of our heads. Kyra tried to smile reassuringly. "Yeah, well, don't mind her. She's just in denial." I quirked an eyebrow. "Do you always have to be so annoyingly perky and optimistic?" "Are you kidding?" she replied emphatically. "Goku made me stay in that stupid room all day with absolutely nothing to do! Trust me, I'm just getting started!" "Oh, boy."  
  
"In." I sucked in air. ". and out." I slowly released the breath. "In. and out." This isn't working, you know, I thought harshly, desparately wanting to open my eyes. What are you talking about? Of course it is! You just need to give it some time. Yeah, right. Well, Kyra thought quietly, partially to herself, it did work for me. Shut up, I commanded. Shutting up. I sighed, continuing with my breathing. Knowing Kyra's eyes were closed, I cautiously opened one of my own to look around me. We had been sitting like this in the courtyard for over a half hour, now. Trunks had gone as soon as we left the room, volunteering to keep an eye on Goku and the others while we trained. That is, if you can even consider this training. Gatomon sat perched on the roof of the building closest to us, temporarily caught between deciding whether to watch our proceedings or go to sleep. I sighed again. Wish I had the luxury of an actual choice. Finally, I opened my other eye and yawned. Kyra opened hers just as I was standing up. "Hey! What are you doing?" I shook my legs and tail, returning feeling to my practically dead limbs. "What does it look like? This obviously isn't working so what's the point?" "Prance, come on," Kyra whined, standing while still wary of her bandaged wing. "At least give it a try." "I did," I retorted. "And the only thing that's come out of me trying is an empty stomach and a sore tail." "Well, maybe if you didn't open your eyes every three minutes and actually tried to look like you were attempting to try this out, something might have happened by now!" Gatomon snapped, nimbly leaping down to join us. "What was that, kitty cat!?" I snarled, twirling around to face her, face red, veins popping. I was not in the mood for this. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kyra slinking away, not wanting to get caught up in another one of our "friendly" disputes. "You heard me," she replied calmly, taking no heed of my challenging tone. "You're nothing more than a lazy bum that doesn't even want to try to save her own butt next time we run into Sirius!" Alright, that was it. This little rat had pushed me too far too many times. "Well, if you think it's so easy," I countered, "why don't you sit here for an hour and breathe! Or better yet, breathe with a paper bag over your head- very deeply!" "Hey, don't get pissed at me cause you can't do something as simple as light a candle." I narrowed my eyes. "Well, Miss-Smarty-Paws! I don't see you lighting any simple candles, now, do I? Talk is cheap from someone who can't back their words with action!" Gatomon smirked. "Nice try, kitten, but I'm not a fire based digimon. It's not in my data, so I can't, but you can, so why not get to it. if you can." My hands tightened into fists beside me as I struggled to contain the tremendous urge to punch the irritating feline. "So, what, now you're saying I can't so it?" "You said it, not me." "Right, and all this is coming from the same digimon who practically cowered behind me while I burnt Sirius's hand to a crisp! Whatdya call that, then? Huh?" "Dumb luck," she replied, looking very smug with herself. "Sirius was caught off guard cause he thought you weren't fighting back. That little light show of yours couldn't harm a flea." "Oh yeah!?" I screamed, raising my hand, unable to hold back any longer. "Well, tell me, genius. Let me know if this hurts enough for ya!" Next thing I knew, I felt my palm grow warm and suddenly I was hurling a sphere of orange flames the size of a grapefruit at the loud-mouthed cat. Unfortunately, I only had the luxury of witnessing a small expression of concern cross her face as she deftly jumped out of the way of the attack. The ball, missing its intended target, flew harmlessly past, crashing into the wall of the building behind them and leaving a decent sized indentation. Glancing behind her, Gatomon turned back to me and stuck her tongue out. "Hah, you call that an attack? I know baby digimon that make better bubbles than that!" Furious, I lifted my hand again. "Oh yeah? Bubble this!" Simultaneously, I let out a series of flaming assaults, one after the other, on and on in the digimon's direction. However, to both my dismay and utter horror, the feline seemed to be able to keep up with the onslaught, always a step ahead of my next flaming projectiles. "What's the matter? Is that all you got?" Under my breath, I began hissing. If you want a challenge, I'll give you a challenge. Releasing several more fireballs, I suddenly took off, speeding toward her while still maintaining my rapid fire. Startled, she took my change in strategy as a dare, and continued running, this time directly at me. Together, the two of us looked like we were in a jousting tournament, racing toward each other in a duel. However, I highly doubt that the Renaissance age battles consisted of fire throwing cat people and bad- mouthed digimon. But beside that, it was kinda the same. As we drew closer and closer together, the distance between my hand and her quickly shrank, resulting in less time for her to escape my flames. More and more balls of fire were coming closer to searing her short fur. I grinned. Let's see you escape, now! However, before I could release the final blow, Gatomon crouched low and sprang over my head, landing somewhere behind me. By now, I was getting seriously ticked off. "Arggg, you're gonna pay Gatomon!" I exclaimed, spinning around as I held another ball of fire waiting to be unleashed. But as I turned, Gatomon's face wasn't the one I encountered. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Ple-eease don't burn me-eee!" "Kyra!?" I exclaimed, flames instantly put out but fury not yet vanished. She stood before me, arms covering her head. Hesitantly, she opened one eye and glanced at me. "Are you gonna burn me?" I rolled my eyes, lowering my hands. "Of course not." "Phew!" she exclaimed, releasing her pent up anxiety and wiping her brow. "Thank goodness!" "What are you doing standing in my way, anyway?" I asked. From behind me, a voice laughed. "Don't you even realize what you just did?" I spun around. Trunks was walking toward us, smiling at me as he sauntered over to Kyra's side. I tilted my head to one side, ears twitching, confused. "Um. no-ooo," I said slowly. Kyra giggled, shaking her head. "Think, brainiac! You don't even remember what we came out here to do in the first place?" I looked at my friend strangely. "Yeah, I was supposed to practice my 'fire- thingy'." "Well, hel-lo! What the heck do you think you just did?" As I stared at Kyra, it suddenly clicked, and a slow smile crept onto my confused face. "Oh crap, I did it, didn't I? I don't believe it, I actually did it!" "All thanks to her," Kyra added cheerfully, jerking her thumb behind her. With her chin high and her arms crossed, Gatomon smiled as she sauntered toward the kitchen. "I'm a genius." *sizzle* "PRANCE!" Gatomon screamed, paws clutching her scorched tail. Grinning, I leaned forward and stuck my tongue out at the beast quickly before spinning around and taking off. Good thing, too, for when I looked back the digimon was already on my tail, claws forward and teeth bared, eyes blazing. Kyra and Trunks stood motionless, watching the chase in bored agitation. After a few seconds, Kyra sighed and sank to the ground, shaking her head. "I think it's safe to say that it's definitely her temper that triggers her power," Trunks said bluntly. Sinking her head into her hands, Kyra added, "Unfortunately." 


End file.
